Saving Ishida
by akanosakura
Summary: Ishida has always relied on no one but himself, but when a series of events threaten to break him, it's up to Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime to be there when he needs them the most. Post SS arc, no pairings. First fic, please R
1. Isolation

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

* * *

Mizuiro clapped his hands. "Good game, everyone! Let's take a quick break!"

Ichigo, Mizuiro, Chad, and Keigo climbed out of the swimming pool and headed for a nearby table to grab some drinks and snacks. Taking a giant gulp of soda, Ichigo looked around to see what the others were doing. Tatsuki and Orihime were sunbathing nearby, and Ishida was sitting alone in a lawn chair shaded by a tree, reading a paperback book.

Barely a week had passed since Ichigo, Chad, Ishida, and Orihime returned to the real world after their adventures in Soul Society. Not long after their return, Keigo had called Ichigo with some news. "Ichigo, guess what? My aunt gave me the keys to her place so that I can feed her cat this week, and she lives in an apartment with a _swimming pool_! I already invited Mizuiro and Chad over for a swim after dinner; you can invite anyone else if you want to come!"

The idea of a swim with friends definitely appealed to Ichigo, so he invited Tatsuki, Orihime, and Ishida to the pool as well. Ishida, still in the mindset that he and Ichigo were enemies now that they were no longer in Soul Society, had stubbornly refused to come at first. It was not until Ichigo showed up on his doorstep along with Chad and Orihime to talk him into going swimming with them that Ishida grudgingly agreed to come. Ishida was, after all, not a fool and knew when he was clearly outnumbered.

Munching on a granola bar, Ichigo walked over to where Ishida was reading and stopped in front of his chair. "Hey, Ishida, we're just about to start another game of volleyball; you want to play in this round?"

Ishida sighed and readjusted his glasses. "I don't play water sports, Kurosaki. Besides, there'll be an uneven number of people on each team if I join you."

Ichigo snorted. "That's the dumbest excuse I ever heard. If it's a matter of keeping the numbers even, then we could let you take Keigo's place. He can sit on the sidelines for this round."

"No thanks," Ishida replied, returning to his book.

_What's his problem?_ Ichigo scowled. Feeling annoyed, he yanked Ishida's book out of his hand and smacked him in the head with it.

"OUCH!" Ishida yelled, rubbing his head gingerly. "What was _that_ for, Kurosaki?"

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Ichigo demanded. "I invited you here so that you could hang out with us at the pool, not sit under a tree and read, you nerd!"

Ishida glared at Ichigo. "I never _asked_ to be invited, Kurosaki. If I feel like swimming later, I'll get in the pool and join you and the others, but _not now_."

Ichigo looked like he wanted nothing more than to punch Ishida, but instead he returned Ishida's glare and tossed his book on the floor. "Sure, whatever," he shrugged as he turned to go back to join Chad, Mizuiro, and Keigo back in the pool for another round of volleyball. _That's the last time I invite you to hang out with us outside of school, Ishida._

Chad silently watched Ichigo make his way back toward the pool. He was too far away to hear what Ichigo and Ishida had been arguing about, but ever observant, he saw the brief flash of pain that crossed Ishida's face as soon as Ichigo's back was turned. Once Ichigo settled back in the water, Chad approached him. "Ichigo, wasn't Ishida supposed to play in this round?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "He said he doesn't play water sports and reminded me that he didn't even want to come here in the first place. If I didn't know better I'd say he's washed his hands of us."

_Is that true?_ Chad wondered. Ishida had gotten along well with almost everyone in Soul Society, and he seemed to be most at ease when he was around Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime. _But if that's the case, then why is he trying to isolate himself from us, the way he did before we met him?_

As Tatsuki flipped through a magazine on martial arts, Orihime turned and looked at Ishida with a sad look in her eyes. She had come to know Ishida quite well after spending time with him in Soul Society, and she didn't understand why he was shutting her out, shutting _everyone_ out now that they were back in the real world. It hurt her to see him so distant from everyone else. _Ishida-kun, why don't you want to be friends with us anymore?_

Ishida retrieved his book from the ground where Ichigo had tossed it and watched silently as the volleyball game began. It was Ichigo and Chad versus Keigo and Mizuiro. From the sidelines, Orihime and Tatsuki cheered for Ichigo's team, which did not go well with Keigo. Ishida had to admit, everyone looked very happy.

_I was happy like that once, too, _he mused_. When Sensei was alive, he made me feel like I could do anything, but after he died, all I could think about was getting revenge against the Shinigami. I never expected to actually befriend Kurosaki, a Shinigami, much less go to Soul Society with him and Sado-kun and Inoue-san. Those two became my friends, too, and we all fought to save Kuchiki-san from execution. But now, just as I've learned what it's like to have friends…_

Ishida stared at the Quincy cross still dangling from his wrist and clenched his fist in frustration. _It hurts. Without my Quincy powers, I cannot slay Hollows, and I have no way to defend myself against them. I can't let them fight for me. I refuse to be anyone's burden. That's why I told Kurosaki that as Shinigami and Quincy, we were still enemies, but the damn fool wouldn't listen! It would be so much easier if everyone just forgot about me_…

All these thoughts were doing nothing for Ishida's peace of mind. A swim sounded good right about now, so he pulled off his shirt and removed his glasses, placing them on a nearby table before heading toward the deep end of the pool. As he slid into the pool and began swimming toward the opposite end, he thought, _Maybe a cool swim will help clear my head._

* * *

Three elementary-school boys holding water balloon launchers stood impatiently outside the pool gate. "Man, I want to go swimming, but those high school guys have been hogging the pool for almost an hour," one boy complained. "That's not fair! They don't even live here!"

"I know! Someone needs to kick them out! We have to do something!" another boy chimed in.

"Maybe we can scare them out of the pool," the third boy suggested. "What if we just started shooting our balloons at them? It'd be funny to see what they do."

"Yeah!" the others agreed as they positioned their launchers and angled them so that the balloons were likely to land beyond the gate into the pool. "They won't even know what hit them," the first boy smirked to himself.

Meanwhile, at the pool, Ichigo and Chad were winning the game against Keigo and Mizuiro. Orihime was telling Tatsuki about a new curry recipe she recently found. Ishida was growing tired of swimming laps in the pool by himself. _Once more across the pool, then I'm out_, he thought. All seven were unaware of what was conspiring outside the gate.

"Ready, set, GO!" With that, the three boys fired their launchers simultaneously.

The first balloon fell short, hitting the gate and exploding with a loud WHAM! The second balloon flew over the gate into the pool area and landed directly on a table, exploding and knocking several unopened cans of soda into the pool where Ichigo and his friends were playing volleyball. "What the hell was that?!" Ichigo exploded.

The third balloon flew through the air and struck Ishida squarely in the back of the head as he was completing his final lap across the pool. Stunned by the impact, Ishida gasped as his head went underwater. Water swirled around him, filling his nose and mouth, choking him. _Can't…breathe…_he thought numbly as a sharp pain in the back of his head overwhelmed him and enveloped him in darkness.

* * *

_To be continued_…


	2. Resolve

"YOU LITTLE PUNKS!" Ichigo roared as he climbed out of the pool and ran out the gate to see who had shot the water balloons into the yard. At the sight of an angry-looking Ichigo charging toward them, the three boys screamed and ran in the opposite direction.

"Don't even think about it!" Ichigo yelled. "Stop right there, you damn brats! You won't get away _that_ easily!"

"Ichigo, calm down!" Keigo yelled as he and Chad caught up to him and grabbed his arms to keep him from tearing after the boys. Mizuiro, Orihime, and Tatsuki had followed them out of the yard too, and they now watched while Ichigo angrily tried to break free of Chad's vice-like grip.

Tatsuki eyeballed the retreating backs of the three boys with an amused look on her face. "It was just a kid's prank, Ichigo, it's not like any of us got hurt. Let them go."

_"What?"_ Ichigo spluttered. "You must be kidding if you think I'll…"

"You heard her, Ichigo," Chad said evenly. "Let them go."

Ichigo finally stopped struggling and Chad let go of his arm. "Kids have no respect nowadays," Ichigo muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck. Looking around, he realized something was off. "Hey, where's Ishida? Didn't he come out with the rest of you guys?"

Mizuiro shrugged. "Last I checked he was still under the tree."

"He's not there anymore," said Tatsuki. "Orihime and I saw him go into the pool a while ago."

"Ishida-kun probably didn't hear us leave if he was swimming," said Orihime. "Oh no, he probably thinks we abandoned him! I have to go tell him we didn't leave him by himself on purpose!" With that, she ran back toward the pool at top speed.

"Inoue!" Ichigo yelled, but she had already disappeared through the gate. "Sheesh, I don't get her sometimes. Ishida can take care of himself."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes disdainfully at Ichigo. "Idiot," she muttered.

Ichigo turned and glared at Tatsuki. "What was _that_ for?" he demanded.

"Never mind her, Ichigo," Keigo said quickly. "Come on, let's…"

**"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" **

"That was Orihime!" Tatsuki exclaimed, instantly breaking into a run toward the pool. The other boys exchanged horrified looks and raced after Tatsuki. There, near the pool, they found a wide-eyed Orihime staring at the water with her hands over her mouth. "ISHIDA-KUN! ISHIDA-KUN!" she screamed.

Without a moment's hesitation Chad took a diving leap into the pool while Ichigo joined Orihime to see what she was looking at. His heart instantly lodged in his throat. Ishida's motionless body was floating facedown in the pool, several inches below the water's surface.

"Holy sh—ISHIDA!" Ichigo yelled, immediately jumping into the pool after Chad. He reached Chad just as the larger boy lifted the unconscious Ishida out of the water. Ishida's body hung as limp as a rag doll in Chad's arms, his arms and legs dangling lifelessly. His face was deathly pale, and there was a bluish tinge on his lips that made Ichigo's eyes widen in alarm.

_This is bad, _Ichigo thought. _If his lips are blue, then he's probably not breathing. How long was he underwater? What the hell happened to him?! _"Chad, how is he?" he asked.

"I don't know," Chad replied as he quickly climbed the steps out of the pool carrying Ishida in his arms. Ichigo started to follow him, but something floating in the water suddenly brushed against his skin and caught his attention. Startled, he looked down and scooped a few torn pieces of dark rubber from the water. "What the hell are these?" he murmured.

"Lay him here!" Mizuiro yelled, snapping Ichigo back to attention. Quickly stuffing the rubber remnants in his waistband, he climbed out of the pool in time to see Chad laying Ishida down on some towels that Keigo and Mizuiro had spread on the ground, while off to one side Tatsuki was trying to calm Orihime. Hurrying over to Ishida's side, Ichigo yelled, "Chad, move over!"

Chad nodded and stepped back as Ichigo kneeled down beside Ishida. "Ishida! Ishida, can you hear me?" he yelled as he firmly shook Ishida's shoulders. Ishida's head lolled side to side as Ichigo shook him, but he did not respond.

Cursing under his breath, Ichigo placed one hand on Ishida's forehead and two fingers under his chin. He expertly tilted Ishida's head back to keep his airway open and bent his head close over the Quincy's nose and mouth to check for air flow. More than five seconds passed, but Ichigo didn't feel any air coming from Ishida's mouth, nor did he see Ishida's chest rise and fall.

_Dammit, I was right, he's not breathing! _Ichigo gritted his teeth. Knowing exactly what he had to do next made him feel more than slightly uncomfortable, but he knew there was no other way. Not if he truly wanted to save Ishida's life._  
_

By this time the other teenagers had formed a semi-circle around Ichigo and Ishida. Not knowing what to do, they exchanged frightened looks with each other. As Orihime stared down at Ishida's pale face, she found herself transported back in time to the day her brother died. How she had begged Sora not to leave her, and how he died anyway. _No, no, no! This can't be happening all over again!_ Choking back a sob, she sank to her knees and took Ishida's limp hand in her own. "Ishida-kun, please wake up! Please be okay!" she begged tearfully.

"Get out of the way, Inoue!" Ichigo ordered. Pinching Ishida's nose shut, he placed his mouth firmly over Ishida's partially open mouth and gave him one quick rescue breath, then another. _One breath per second_, he thought as he watched Ishida's chest rise and fall with each artificial breath. _Ishida, you bastard, I'll never forgive you for making me do this._

Rescue breath or not, at the sight of Ichigo pressing his mouth against Ishida's, Keigo's eyes nearly popped out of his head in shock. Mizuiro's mouth fell open in surprise. Chad's face remained impassive. Orihime, still holding Ishida's hand, gaped at Ichigo in awe. Tatsuki smiled fondly at her old friend. _Ichigo, when did you learn CPR?_ she wondered.

_That looks so wrong! Ichigo looks like he's kissing Ishida! _Keigo shook his head to clear his mind of such thoughts and looked nervously at Ichigo. "I-Ichigo, is he d…"

"_No!_ He's still alive, but we don't have much time!" Ichigo yelled, cutting Keigo off. "Tatsuki, call the ambulance. Mizuiro, call my dad and get him over here. Keigo, give Tatsuki and Mizuiro your aunt's address so they can tell the ambulance where to go, then I want you to wait outside for them. GO!"

Keigo, Tatsuki, and Mizuiro immediately ran off to do their appointed tasks. Chad turned to look at Ichigo, who had two fingers pressed firmly against Ishida's neck. "Is there a pulse?" he asked quietly.

"It's weak, but it's still there," Ichigo said grimly. "Chad, tell Inoue not to fall apart, okay? The two of you need to stay back and let me do this. It looks like I'm the only one who knows how to save him now."

Chad nodded, and Ichigo turned back to Ishida, silently reviewing the steps for rescue breathing in his mind. _Open the airway and check for breathing for no more than 10 seconds. If the victim is not breathing, give 2 breaths at 1 second per breath. Check for pulse for no more than 10 seconds. If the pulse is present, but breathing is absent, give one rescue breath every 5-6 seconds for an adult. Recheck the pulse every two minutes._

Time was of the essence. For now, Ishida's pulse was present, but Ichigo knew that if he did not act soon, Ishida could go into cardiac arrest and even die.

_And I can't let that happen, no matter what._

* * *

_To be continued_…

* * *

A/N: This is my first fic, so be nice! I also want to remind everyone that _there are NO pairings in this fic. _I tried to make it obvious that Ichigo would not "lock lips" with Ishida unless he absolutely had to (which is the case here)


	3. Resuscitation

A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews. I took them to heart when I wrote this chapter, so hopefully you'll like what you read._

* * *

__Two minutes._

Ichigo tilted Ishida's head back and pinched his nose shut. _Two minutes. If I can't bring Ishida back in that amount of time and he loses his pulse, then I'll have to add chest compressions. Hopefully it won't come down to that. _Once again, Ichigo placed his mouth over Ishida's and began administering rescue breaths.

_How many breaths will it take before he recovers?_

**One**.

Ichigo watched expectantly as Ishida's chest rose and fell, but beyond that, nothing else happened. Ishida still wasn't breathing on his own. "Come on, _come on_," he muttered as he felt his stomach tighten into uncomfortable knots._ Don't do this, Ishida. Don't you dare die on me._

Chad saw the frustration written all over Ichigo's face and lowered his head, gazing helplessly at his hands. _Ichigo…I wish there was something I could do to help you, but this is something that only **you** can do. I hate that I couldn't protect Ishida this time, and now all I can do is watch while…_

Chad knew that he was not the type of person who could let horrible things happen to the people he cared about without doing something to help them. He barely even knew Ishida before they went to Soul Society, but nevertheless, he readily accepted Ishida into his circle of friends when they went to Soul Society together to rescue Rukia. When Ishida got caught in the current while running through the Senkai Gate, it was Chad who pulled him free. When Kuukaku went off on Ganju and Ichigo for "being stupid," it was Chad who extended his arm to protect Ishida and Orihime from her wrath. And after the cannonball exploded above Seireitei, it was Chad who caught Ishida before he separated from the others and threw him to Orihime, knowing that the two of them would be safer together. _Ishida…_

As he remembered these events, Chad clenched his fists. _I believe in you, Ichigo. I always have, so please don't give up. Ishida…hang in there._

**Two**.

_Ishida-kun, Ishida-kun, please don't die._ Orihime clasped her hands together in silent prayer as she watched Ichigo give Ishida another rescue breath. She couldn't believe this was happening to Ishida, who was so strong and fearless back in Soul Society. She thought back to the times he had protected her and come to her defense, like the time he rescued her from Jirobou, or when he fought that scary-looking captain of the 12th division while yelling at her to run away. _I owe him so much_, she thought sadly. _There has to be something I can do to help…_

Of course! Her Shun Shun Rikka! Why didn't she think of them before! She raised her hands to her temples and prepared to call Shun'ou and Ayame, but a strong hand gripped her shoulder, stopping her. Startled, she turned her head to see who it was. "Sado-kun?"

Chad shook his head and glanced at Ichigo. Orihime followed his gaze and saw Ichigo watching Ishida intently for any signs of breath. There was a look of grim determination on his face, and slowly, Orihime lowered her hands back into her lap.

_I remember now. Kurosaki-kun asked Sado-kun and me to stay out of this. He didn't want us to interfere, so he must believe that he can save Ishida-kun by himself. I have to believe that, too. I have to believe that in the end, Ishida-kun will be okay. Kurosaki-kun…I trust you._

**Three**.

"Dammit, Ishida, _breathe_!" Ichigo shouted, clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. _How many breaths have I given him in all? Four? Five? _Now _he_ was finding it hard to breathe, and he felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach. For the first time since his resuscitation attempt began, he was _terrified_. Afraid that all his actions would be in vain, that no matter how many rescue breaths he gave, Ishida would never wake up. _No, I can't give up now. I __**have**__ to do this. Everyone is counting on me._

Without warning, a flood of memories entered Ichigo's mind:

_Ishida, his eyes glaring as he challenged Ichigo to a contest to see who could kill the most hollows._

_Ishida with Zangetsu tied onto his head as he aimed a giant arrow at the Menos Grande._

_Ishida's arms dripping with blood as he shot spirit arrows created from Ichigo's excess spirit energy into the sky._

_Ishida lying helplessly on the sidewalk, bleeding from a wound inflicted by Renji's zanpakuto._

_Ishida pulling on a spare cape after he lost his first one in the Senkai Gate, much to Ichigo's and Chad's dismay._

_Ishida and Ichigo freaking out at their first sight of Kuukaku's house._

_Ishida turning his head to look at Ichigo after they returned to Karakura. "You and I are Shinigami and Quincy. The next time we meet, we'll be enemies."_

The more Ichigo remembered, the greater he felt his resolve to save Ishida grow. _Urahara told me once, 'If you protect someone, you don't let them die.' Ishida, I couldn't protect you from drowning, but I can't, no, I _**won't**_ let you die!!_

**Fou—**

Just as Ichigo leaned over to administer another breath, Ishida suddenly let out a tiny cough. Water dribbled out of the corners of his mouth, but before anyone could react, Ishida began coughing more violently, sending a spray of pool water straight into Ichigo's face.

"Aw, DAMN!" Ichigo yelled, his relief momentarily overshadowed by his disgust of getting spat on. Thinking fast, he quickly rolled Ishida onto his side to prevent him from choking and placed him in the recovery position. "That's it," he said encouragingly as Ishida continued to cough and bring up water from his lungs. "Get all that water out, Ishida. You're all right now!"

Ishida's eyes flew open, wide and frightened and unseeing, and his chest heaved in an effort to draw more air into his lungs. "K-Kuro…?" he choked out between coughs.

"Yeah, it's me, I'm here!" Ichigo said, placing a hand on Ishida's shoulder. "Don't talk, Ishida, just breathe, okay? _Breathe_. Deep breaths, come on, take deep breaths, that's it…"

"We're here too, Ishida-kun!" Orihime said breathlessly as she and Chad quickly made their way to Ishida's side. As she got closer, Orihime was slightly unnerved when Ishida looked in her direction with glazed eyes that didn't seem to see. _Ishida-kun's eyes…they never looked so empty before._ She tentatively reached out and gently took one of his hands in her own. To her relief, Ishida's fingers curled around her hand, squeezing it tightly as though afraid to let go.

"Inoue…san…" Ishida whispered. "Sado-kun…"

From where he sat, Chad smiled and said nothing, while Orihime beamed happily. As Ishida's coughs finally subsided, he blinked away the glazed look in his eyes and slowly let go of Orihime's hand, embarrassed that he'd grasped it so tightly. "What…happened?" he asked.

"Are you all right, Ishida-kun?" Orihime asked. "We were so worried about you!"

Still breathing hard, Ishida gave a barely perceptible nod. "W-where am I…?"

"You're at the pool," said Chad. "Do you remember anything?"

Ishida stared blankly ahead of him and didn't answer. "Can't…see…" he finally murmured as he gingerly raised a hand to his face to feel for glasses that were not there.

"Here." Chad placed his glasses in his hand. Putting them on with shaky hands, Ishida drew in a deep breath. "Thank you…Sado-kun," he said quietly.

"Do you remember what happened?" asked Ichigo, repeating Chad's question.

Ishida slowly shook his head, and a painful wince suddenly spread across his face. "Ow…my head…" he groaned.

"Your head? Did you hit your head in the pool?" asked Ichigo. Suddenly he remembered the torn rubber pieces that he had found in the pool and removed them from his waistband. Taking a closer look at the pieces, he wondered why they looked so familiar. _Wait a sec_…

Eyes widening in realization, he turned toward the table where the second water balloon had hit, and suddenly everything became clear. "You've _got_ to be kidding me!" he exclaimed angrily.

"What is it?" Chad asked as Ichigo hurried behind Ishida and began lightly palpating the back of Ishida's head. As his fingers found what he was looking for, Ishida flinched and let out a sharp hiss of pain.

"Sorry, sorry," Ichigo apologized, instantly withdrawing his hands to his lap. Turning to the others, he held up the pieces of rubber he had found in the pool. "Ishida has a bump on his head. I found _these_ in the pool when Chad pulled him out of the water. I think when those kids were shooting water balloons over the fence at us earlier, one balloon landed on Ishida's head while he was swimming and knocked him out! _That_ is why he almost drowned!"

"What?" Orihime's hands flew to her mouth. "That's awful!"

"We were all so busy trying to get out of the water to run after Ichigo, we didn't stop to see what happened to Ishida," said Chad, who looked a bit sick at this knowledge.

"Those damn brats," Ichigo snarled. "When I get my hands on those three…"

"Calm down, Ichigo," said Chad. "It's too late now. We have no idea where those kids went or where they live."

"I can't just let them get away with this!" Ichigo argued. "Ishida almost _died_ because of them!"

"But he's not dead!" Orihime piped up. "He's okay, and it's all because of you, Kurosaki-kun! You knew exactly what to do to save his life!" Her smile quickly faded. "The rest of us weren't any help at all…" she whispered.

"Don't say that, Inoue," Ichigo said quickly. "I wouldn't have known what to do either if my dad hadn't taught CPR to my sisters and me. Besides, Chad was the one who jumped into the pool and pulled him out in the first place."

Ishida listened to the others talk and closed his eyes wearily. He still felt a bit disoriented and couldn't remember exactly what just happened, so he tried to put the pieces together in his mind. _If what they're saying is true, it sounds like I got hit in the head with a random water balloon while I was swimming, then Sado-kun found me and pulled me out, and after that…_

A cool evening breeze brushed his skin, making him shiver involuntarily. A few seconds later, he felt something warm and soft cover him, and he looked up to see that Orihime had covered his body with a dry towel. "Is this better, Ishida-kun?" she asked as she placed her hands over the towel and began massaging some warmth into his arms. "When I was little, my brother used to rub my arms to keep me warm, so I thought this would work for you, too!"

"I-Inoue-san, you don't have to…" Ishida protested, but the hurt look in her eyes made him stop. "Y-yes, it's better, thank you," he finished quietly. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, and he _did_ feel much better now that he wasn't shivering anymore.

Ichigo watched this exchange and mentally slapped himself. _Damn, I forgot…near-drowning victims should be kept warm after they're pulled from the water. Good thing Inoue caught it._ Turning to Orihime, he said,"See what you just did, Inoue? You gave Ishida a blanket to keep him warm; that's helping him a lot."

At those words, Orihime met Ichigo's eyes and smiled. "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun!"

"Kurosaki." At the sound of his name, Ichigo turned his head. "What's up, Ishida?" he asked.

Ishida raised his eyes to Ichigo's face. "Were you the one…who saved me?"

Suddenly self-conscious as he remembered what he had to do in order to save Ishida's life, Ichigo awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and nodded. "Yeah, it was me."

Ishida looked away in embarrassment. He had taken a course in CPR shortly before high school started, and he knew all too well that in order to save his life, Ichigo must have given him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The thought of it made him sick. _I never wanted this. I never asked for Kurosaki to put his mouth over mine and breathe air into my lungs. Doing all that, not knowing whether or not I'd make it_…_that must have put him through hell. Why did he do it?  
_

"Oy, Ishida, what's with that look on your face?" Ichigo frowned. "You okay?"

Ishida closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Kurosaki," he whispered.

Ichigo's mouth fell open in surprise. _This_ was unexpected. "What are you sorry about, Ishida? Are you sorry I saved your life? Okay, I admit, I wasn't thrilled about the whole mouth-to-mouth thing, but you know what? There was no way in hell that I was going to stand by and let you die! You scared the hell out of me when I found out you weren't breathing, and for a while I was afraid you'd lose your pulse, too. And if CPR was the only way to save you, then I'd do it all over again. You got that?"

Ishida's eyes widened. "Kurosaki…"

"Besides," Ichigo added with a small smirk, "if our roles had been reversed, I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

Before Ishida could reply, he heard someone shouting. The four teenagers looked up to see Tatsuki running toward them, waving her cell phone in her hand. "Ichigo! I just got off the phone with the operator; the ambulance is on its way! How's Ishida doing?"

"He's awake!" Orihime replied as she waved cheerfully at her best friend. Knowing that the ambulance was on the way and Ishida was all right, Ichigo stood up to see if Keigo was still waiting outside the gate when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Chad? What is it?"

"It's Ishida," Chad said in hushed tones. "I think something's wrong with his breathing."

Startled, Ichigo turned and kneeled beside Ishida for a closer look. Ishida's eyes were half-closed, and his breaths were quick, shallow, and labored, almost as though each breath was a struggle. _Not good_, Ichigo thought to himself. _There's no telling how much water is left in his lungs, not to mention he still has that huge lump on his head. That ambulance had better get here soon. Damn, where the hell is Dad?! Mizuiro should have called him here by now! The clinic isn't **that** far from this place!  
_

"Ichigo!" At the sound of his father's voice, Ichigo looked up to see his father running into the yard with Keigo and Mizuiro on his heels. "Dad!"

"Ichigo, is Ishida okay?" asked Keigo.

"Yeah, he's okay!" said Ichigo. "Dad, can you hurry and check on Ishida? He's still having some trouble breathing and he hurt his head, too!"

"Never fear, your old dad's here!" Isshin said proudly as he held up a medicine bag with one hand and a portable oxygen tank with the other. As he spoke, he and the others heard the faint wail of ambulance sirens in the far distance. Mizuiro smiled, "Looks like the ambulance is coming!"

"Perfect timing," Ichigo said quietly as he stepped back and watched the scene unfolding before him. Chad was supporting Ishida while Isshin placed an oxygen mask over Ishida's nose and mouth to help him breathe better. Keigo was overdramatically crying tears of relief while Mizuiro smiled and shook his head in amusement. Tatsuki and Orihime were running toward the gate to greet the paramedics. Ichigo smiled.

"It looks like everything's going to be all right now."

* * *

_To be_ _continued…_


	4. Fathers

A/N: As I was writing, I couldn't resist throwing in a father-son talk toward the end, so this chapter is fairly Ichigo-centric. Enjoy!  
_

* * *

_"Dad, what's the big deal?" Ichigo grumbled as Isshin herded him and his friends several meters away from the stretcher where a group of paramedics were currently working on Ishida. "Why can't we keep Ishida company?"

"I don't want you to get in the paramedics' way," said Isshin. "They're going to put a cervical collar around Uryuu's neck to protect his head and neck from further injuries, but before that they have to warm him up a bit. We don't want him to get hypothermia, after all."

"Warm him up? How are they going to do that?" asked Orihime.

Before Isshin could answer, he was interrupted by Ishida's terrified cries. "W-why are you holding that? What are you planning to do?! Wait, stop, no—don't! STOP IT! _PLEASE STOP!_ _I'M FREEZING! NO, NO, SOMEBODY PLEASE_…

Ichigo's eyes widened in horror. _Is that_…_Ishida?_ In all the time that they knew each other, he had _never_ heard Ishida, who always put on such a cool front and let few things in life faze him, sound so frightened before, and it scared the hell out of him.

"Stay here, kids, that's an order!" Isshin barked as he turned and hurried over to Ishida's side. The other teenagers craned their necks to see what was going on, but with all the paramedics and Isshin surrounding the stretcher, all they could see of Ishida were his head and shoulders. No longer screaming, Ishida now lay quietly on the stretcher with a miserable look on his face. The teenagers watched as Isshin laid a hand on Ishida's shoulder and said something to him, but Ishida didn't respond.

Orihime, Tatsuki, Mizuiro, Chad, and Keigo looked confused. "What just happened to Ishida?" asked Keigo.

Ichigo didn't answer. He had a fairly good idea of what just happened, and he didn't blame Ishida for freaking out the way he just did. When treating hypothermia, there was a rule that all wet clothing had to be removed in order to keep the body from losing more heat. And Ishida had only been wearing his swim trunks. Ichigo shook his head sympathetically. _Poor Ishida. Those damn paramedics left him in his birthday suit. Who **wouldn't**_ _panic in a situation like that?  
_

"I'm leaving," Orihime announced suddenly. Everyone turned and stared at her in surprise. "I'm going to stop by Ishida-kun's apartment and pick up some clothes for him, and then bring them to the hospital so he'll have something warm to wear. He'll freeze if he's only wearing his swim trunks, after all!"

Ichigo silently sweatdropped but said nothing. Tatsuki smiled at her best friend. "That sounds like a good idea. I'll go with you, Orihime."

"Umm, why do _they_ get to leave while the rest of us stay?" asked Keigo. He didn't want to admit it, but he felt uncomfortable being around what he saw as "the scene of the accident that almost killed Ishida Uryuu."

Ichigo sighed. "Keigo, you and Mizuiro might as well leave, too. There's nothing for us to do here. I'm just going to wait for my dad and then maybe I'll go to the hospital later."

"All right, see you later, Ichigo," said Mizuiro. He and Keigo waved goodbye to Ichigo and Chad and made their way out the gate. When they were gone, Ichigo turned to Chad. "You leaving too?" he asked.

Chad shook his head. "I'm staying."

Ichigo nodded. "Come on, let's go see Ishida." With that, the two boys headed over toward Ishida's stretcher, which was parked right outside the ambulance. Ishida, still wearing an oxygen mask in addition to his cervical collar, was wrapped head to toe in warm blankets and securely strapped to the stretcher. Only his face was visible as Ichigo and Chad approached him, and he looked like he was sleeping.

"Ishida?" Ichigo asked quietly. No answer. "Hey, talk to us, Ishida. You okay?"

Finally, Ishida opened his eyes and glared at Ichigo. _What kind of question is that? Do I **look** okay, Kurosaki?_ It was bad enough that he nearly drowned and had to be revived by Ichigo, but no, the humiliation did not end there. When the paramedics arrived, one of them immediately pulled out a pair of scissors and, despite his cries of protest, cut off his swim trunks, leaving him naked and exposed for everyone around to see. It was several seconds later before Ichigo's father finally appeared and draped a dry towel over his waist for modesty's sake. They then placed the collar around his neck and bundled him up with preheated blankets before strapping him down so that he could not move _at all_. He felt like a trussed-up prisoner and wondered bitterly if there was any way his day could possibly get any worse.

"Ah, so you _are_ awake," said Ichigo. "Sorry, I guess that was a dumb question to ask."

"You guessed right," Ishida muttered. There was an awkward pause before he spoke again, this time with a slight tremor in his voice. "Kurosaki, when the paramedics were working on me just now, you didn't…_see_ anything, did you?"

Ichigo blinked, then realized what Ishida was _really_ asking him. "No," he replied honestly. "None of us saw anything. My dad made us stand far away from you in order to give you some space. Inoue did say she was going to your apartment to get some clothes for you, though. She'll bring them to the hospital later."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Ishida's mouth. "I'll have to thank Inoue-san later," he murmured. "Do you know where they're taking me?"

"Karakura Hospital," said Chad. "I overheard one of the men saying so."

Ishida groaned. "No, not there! My father owns that hospital! I don't want him to know about this!"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Your father owns the hospital? I don't see what's so bad about that; if anything, you'll get the best care in the world if he's there."

_Wrong, Kurosaki, _Ishida thought. _He is the **last** person that I want to see right now._

"Okay, you're all set to go, Uryuu-kun!" The boys jumped as Isshin suddenly appeared out of nowhere and patted Ishida's shoulder. "Once you get to the hospital, you're going straight to Radiology to get a CT scan of your head. But seeing how your neurological exam was normal, I'd be very surprised if you have anything worse than a concussion."

"Can I go home after I get the CT scan?" Ishida asked quietly.

Isshin shook his head. "I'm afraid not. You still have some fluid in your lungs and your O2 sat—that stands for oxygen saturation—indicates that you're still hypoxemic. That means there's not enough oxygen in your blood, so you'll have to stay at the hospital overnight for oxygen treatment and observation. And just so you know, those are your father's orders, not mine."

Ishida's eyes widened. "My father…knows?"

Isshin nodded. "I called Ryuuken after I examined you and filled him in on what happened. He's expecting your arrival at the hospital."

"Oh no…" Ishida moaned, closing his eyes in dread.

"We're ready." On the count of three, two paramedics each grabbed one end of Ishida's stretcher and lifted him into the waiting ambulance. Once Ishida was inside the ambulance, Chad climbed inside to accompany him to the hospital. Ichigo would not be joining them just yet; he had to speak to his father first.

"I'll catch up with you guys later," he promised. "Hang in there, Ishida."

Ishida didn't respond as the ambulance doors closed. After the ambulance drove away, Ichigo turned and glared at his father. "Why did you tell Ishida's dad what happened here today? Ishida didn't want him to know!"

Isshin crossed his arms and frowned. "Ishida Ryuuken may have the personality of an iceberg, but he is still Uryuu's father as well as an excellent doctor. All fathers look out for their children. I couldn't keep something this important away from him."

"But did he have to keep Ishida in the hospital _overnight? _You heard Ishida; he wants to go home!"

"Normally for near-drowning cases like these, we can send the patients home as soon as their O2 sats return to normal and stabilize. The emergency department could easily release Uryuu after a few hours of oxygen therapy, but Ryuuken put his foot down. He insisted on keeping Uryuu at the hospital for overnight observation rather than send him home to an empty apartment. This way, he can keep an eye on his son during the night. So you see, Ichigo, telling Ryuuken was all for the best."

"I suppose," Ichigo agreed grudgingly. "And Ishida…he's going to be okay, right?"

"Uryuu will be fine. From what you told me, he was only underwater for about 2 or 3 minutes, and you were able to revive him before his heart stopped beating completely. Thanks to your quick actions, his full recovery is pretty much guaranteed. You should be proud of yourself, son."

_Proud?_ Ichigo was silent for a few seconds before shaking his head. "I should be thanking _you_ for teaching me CPR, Dad. If you hadn't made me learn all those skills, then Ishida would have…" He stopped, not wanting to think about what would have happened if Ishida had died.

"How are _you _feeling, Ichigo?" Isshin asked gently.

Ichigo blinked at his father's sudden change in tone. "What the—why are you asking me something like that?"

Isshin sighed. "Ichigo, I taught you, Karin, and Yuzu how to perform CPR because I wanted you three to be prepared. You saw for yourself today that emergencies can happen at any time, and not everyone knows what to do in situations like that. I didn't want you to be the person who sits on the sidelines doing nothing; I wanted you to be the one to take action and save lives. Still, I had hoped that you wouldn't have to put those skills to use anytime soon. What you did for your friend today…that must have been difficult, even frightening for you."

Ichigo stared at his father in surprise. _How did he know?_

"There are many ways to save a life," Isshin continued. "Many times, it happens so quickly that you don't even realize it. A child wanders into the street in front of an incoming car, and you push her out of the way without thinking of your own safety. Someone threatens your loved one with a gun or a blade, and you do all you can to protect that loved one, even kill if necessary. No time to think, no time to deliberate. It's different with CPR. If you have to do CPR on someone, it's because harm has already been done. The person is not breathing, his heart is not beating, or even both. When that happens, you do what you can and wait to see if it's effective. That's all you _can_ do. There's a lot of pressure that comes with knowing that you are holding someone's life in your hands, and it's even harder when that person whose life you so desperately want to save is someone close to you. Whether it's a close friend, a brother or a sister, a wife…" His voice trailed off.

Ichigo was shocked speechless. Never before had Isshin said so much at one stretch, and in such a serious manner, too! Was this really his fun-loving, idiotic father? And yet…it made sense that Isshin would understand what Ichigo had went through when he was trying to save Ishida's life. _Dad's a doctor. He deals with life-or-death situations on a regular basis, and more importantly, he knows what it's like to lose someone close to him. _Without warning, his mother's smiling face appeared in his mind. _Mom…_

Before Ichigo could dwell on his mother's death much longer, Isshin suddenly slugged him in the shoulder and laughed. "Oh come on, what's with that look on your face? Don't look so glum, Ichigo! Your friend's alive, you're a hero! And what are you hanging around here for? Go home and change your clothes; I can drop you off at the hospital later so you can see Uryuu. You can even spend the night there if you want; the hospital's a lonely place to be and I'm sure Uryuu will want his friends around tonight."

"Gee, thanks," Ichigo muttered, rubbing his sore shoulder. So much for thinking that his father was finally being a grown-up for once. "If you don't mind, then I'll go on ahead. Later, Dad."

As Isshin watched Ichigo leave the apartment complex, the grin on his face faded into a sad smile. _Masaki…if you could see Ichigo now, you'd be as proud of him as I am, maybe even more. What he did today for Ryuuken's boy…that took a lot of courage and maturity that I wasn't even sure he possessed. And you know what? I think he gets that from me.__

* * *

_

_To be continued…_


	5. Uncertainties

As the ambulance raced through the streets toward Karakura Hospital, Ishida was grateful that it was Chad who was riding with him. Unlike Orihime, who could never stop talking once she got started, and Ichigo, who probably would have started questioning Ishida about why he had been avoiding everyone ever since they returned from Soul Society, Chad was quiet and gave Ishida the privacy he needed to think about what was going to happen next.

"_You'll have to stay at the hospital overnight for oxygen treatment and observation. And just so you know, those are your father's orders, not mine."_

Ishida scowled as he remembered Isshin's words. He should have known that Ryuuken would do something like this. There was no medical reason to admit him to the hospital; he could have received oxygen in the ER and been discharged after a few hours. Ryuuken obviously must have used his position as the hospital director to pull some strings on Ishida's behalf. Anyone else would have thought that Ryuuken was acting out of fatherly love and concern for his only son, but Ishida knew better. The way he saw it, keeping him in the hospital against his will was Ryuuken's way of exerting some control over his life. _Always thinking he knows what's best for me,_ Ishida thought bitterly. _Doesn't he realize by now that I don't need him around?_

He tried to shift his arms into a more comfortable position, but they remained pinned to his sides, held in place by the blankets wrapped tightly around him and the straps securing him to the stretcher. He ironically noted that the blankets whose purpose was to keep him warm were also holding him captive, bringing him closer and closer to the hospital and a man whom he did _not_ want to see. Then he remembered with a pang that he was wearing nothing beneath these layers of blankets and groaned. _Oh no, is he going to see me in all my nakedness?! I'd rather_…

"Ishida?" At the sound of his name, Ishida turned to see Chad staring down at him. "Are you all right? You looked terrible just now."

"Ah, I'm sorry, Sado-kun," Ishida apologized. "It's just…I don't feel very well."

Chad nodded sympathetically. "I think we'll be arriving at the hospital soon. Just hang on a little longer."

_Like I have a choice?_ Ishida thought. Still, he was thankful for Chad's reassurance. There was something about Chad's presence that made him feel safe, and yet he had to wonder…since _when_ did he need another person's presence in order to feel better? When did he become so _soft_?

Ishida was used to being alone. His grandfather, Souken, was the only person who showed him love and affection while he was growing up, making up for the attention that his father _didn't_ give him. When Souken died, Ishida felt that a part of _him_ died along with his grandfather. With Ryuuken as his only role model, Ishida Uryuu's child-like innocence eventually faded away. Soft smiles became perpetual frowns. Large, curious eyes became more narrow and suspicious. A broken heart afraid to experience more pain closed itself against forming close relationships with others. As a teenager, Ishida prided himself on being independent and never relied on others for help, seeing dependence as a sure sign of weakness. In short, he relied on no one but himself.

That was before Ichigo entered the picture. Before he challenged Ichigo to a hollow-slaying contest, Ishida had always fought alone. He was so confident in his abilities as a Quincy that the thought of failure never once occurred to him, not until his plan backfired and attracted more hollows than he could ever hope to handle. Then Ichigo had proposed that they fight back to back, a concept that was completely foreign to Ishida. And that was just the beginning.

When Ishida joined Chad, Orihime, and Ichigo on their quest to rescue Rukia in Soul Society, he never imagined the positive effect that they would have on him. They showed him what it was like to have friends who looked out for each other and cared for each other; indeed, Ishida never imagined that even _he_ would be someone worth protecting. When his cape got caught in the current while running through the Senkai gate, it was Chad who had pulled him free. When he was bleeding on the ground, waiting for Renji's zanpakuto to deliver a fatal blow, it was Ichigo who distracted Renji in order to save him. And when he and Orihime were flying across Seireitei after the cannonball exploded, Orihime had called on her Shun Shun Rikka to form a barrier to save their lives. _Inoue-san even got hurt because of me_.

No, Ishida had not forgotten how Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime had protected him. But having friends who were willing to watch his back…he still wasn't used to that, and he didn't know what to do. He _wanted_ to embrace them as friends, but a small part of him was still afraid to confide in them, afraid that they would drop him as soon as they learned that he had become a powerless Quincy. To avoid that potential scenario, he decided that it was better if _he_ pushed _them _away first. It didn't work; the three of them refused to leave him alone. _They all showed up on my doorstep today, just so I would go to Asano-san's pool party with them. I couldn't say no, and now here I am. To think, if I hadn't gone with them to the party, I never would have…_

Ishida sighed and lightly flicked his right wrist, closing his fingers tightly around his Quincy cross. One end of the cross dug deeply into his palm, close to the point of drawing blood, but he didn't feel any pain. He was too preoccupied in his thoughts, wondering whether or not he should tell the others that he had lost his powers. In the past, he never would have admitted any of his weaknesses to anyone, least of all a Shinigami, but now things were different. His friends had saved his life, and he felt like he owed them an explanation.

_After what happened earlier at the pool, I can no longer look the other way. After all that Kurosaki and the others have done for me, it would be ungrateful of me to push them away now. Still, that doesn't change the fact that my powers are gone. No amount of friendship or support will ever get that back. I've become useless, powerless, __**weak**__! I don't want them to know the truth about my powers, but if I **don't** tell them, and they take me with them to fight a Hollow that I can't destroy, I'd be putting everyone's lives in jeopardy. I can't allow that. I can't be that kind of burden to them.  
_

_So where do I go from here?

* * *

_It was already dark outside when Ichigo arrived at Ishida's hospital room at Karakura Hospital. He knocked lightly on the door, which was opened almost immediately by Orihime. "There you are, Kurosaki-kun!" she greeted. "We've been waiting for you to get here!"

"Sorry about that, Inoue, I had some stuff to take care of at home before coming," said Ichigo.

"Well, come on in! Ishida-kun is sleeping, so we'll have to whisper once we're in the room," Orihime said, putting a finger to her lips for further emphasis.

Ichigo nodded and quietly followed Orihime into Ishida's room. The only source of light in the room was a small lamp sitting on Ishida's bedside table, but it provided enough light for Ichigo to see clearly. There was only one bed in the room, and on that bed, Ishida was fast asleep with a thin hospital blanket tucked snugly around his shoulders. A thin clear tube looped over his ears, snaked across his cheeks, and ran under his nose, inserting in both nostrils; Ichigo recognized this as a nasal cannula, a medical device used to deliver oxygen to patients. There was also a clip-like object on Ishida's left index finger that was attached to a wire leading to a small monitor; this was a pulse oximeter, commonly used to measure a patient's heart rate and oxygen saturation.

Chad stood up from a recliner where he had been sitting. "Ichigo," he greeted.

Ichigo nodded in reply. "How's Ishida doing?"

"He's fine."

"What did his CT report say?"

"There was no bleeding in his brain. Ishida just has a mild concussion. The nurses gave him some medicine for his headache, and maybe something to help him sleep, I'm not sure."

Ichigo glanced around the room and frowned. "Hey Inoue, wasn't Tatsuki supposed to be here with you?"

Orihime nodded. "Tatsuki-chan wanted to keep me company, but then her parents called and told her to come home, so I went to Ishida-kun's apartment by myself." Gesturing toward a large duffel bag lying on the ground that was filled to the brim with clothes, she continued, "I didn't know what Ishida-kun normally wears to sleep, so I looked through his closet and picked out a few T-shirts, pants, and underwear so that he could have a choice in what to wear at the hospital."

Ichigo gulped. "Wow…that's a lot of clothes you brought there, Inoue."

"Oh, yes, but Ishida-kun didn't mind at all!" Orihime giggled. "He was just happy that I happened to pack his favorite pajama pants and a T-shirt that he normally sleeps in, and he didn't have to wear one of those awful hospital gowns anymore! That's a relief, because those gowns barely cover everything!"

The two boys froze, unable to believe what they just heard come out of Orihime's mouth. "Inoue…what do you mean by that?" Ichigo choked out. "Don't tell me you…"

"I saw another patient walking around in the hall when I first came here. His gown was open in the back and tied together with string, similar to Ishida-kun's gown, but it wasn't tied very well and his entire backside was showing." Orihime shrugged. "Ishida-kun was smart, though. He made sure he kept his back pressed against the wall until I gave him the clothes I brought from his place."

Chad and Ichigo sweatdropped and exchanged looks. "Well…I'm sure Ishida was very grateful you brought him some clothes, Inoue," Ichigo said weakly.

A soft sigh from the bed drew everyone's attention, and the teenagers held their breath as Ishida shifted ever so slightly in his sleep. "Oops!" Orihime whispered, clapping her hands over her mouth. "Were we being too loud?"

"Probably, but I don't think he woke up," Ichigo whispered back.

"Thank goodness," Orihime sighed. "So, what are we going to do now? Should we take turns watching Ishida-kun to make sure he's okay?"

"Nah, I think he'll be all right," said Ichigo. "There's not much to see if he's just sleeping. We might as well get some rest too and stay close by in case he wakes up and needs something."

"Sounds good," said Chad.

Orihime nodded. "I saw an extra cot in an empty room next door. I was thinking that I could sleep in the recliner, and then the two of you can bring the cot in here and…"

"Actually, Inoue, _you_ can have the cot," Ichigo said quickly. He had a feeling that Orihime was about to suggest that he and Chad share the cot, which would have been physically impossible to do. "I brought a sleeping bag with me, so Chad and I can take turns sitting in the recliner and sleeping on the floor."

"Kurosaki-kun, no," Orihime protested. "You can have the cot; I'll sleep on the floor…"

"Inoue, it's fine, it doesn't bother me. I can sleep anywhere."

"I'll go get the cot," Chad quietly said as he stood up and left the room.

Orihime still looked hesitant, but she knew it would do no good for her to argue with Ichigo. "All right, if you say so, Kurosaki-kun," she said. "One last thing to do then."

Turning to the sleeping Ishida, she pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen across his eyes and smiled. "Goodnight, Ishida-kun. Sweet dreams."_____

* * *

_

_To be continued…_

* * *

A/N: Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit rushed; I was in a hurry to post it so I could focus on my exams. This chapter acts as a transition to the next part of the story. 


	6. Nightmare

"Forgive…me…"

Ichigo's eyes slowly opened in the pitch-black darkness of Ishida's hospital room. "Huh?" he murmured groggily. _What the hell just woke me up?_ Reaching for his cell phone, he flipped it open to see what time it was and groaned. _1:35 a.m.? Damn, it's still early in the morning!_

"Ichigo." At the sound of Chad's voice, Ichigo used the light from his cell phone to find Chad sitting in the recliner. "Hey, Chad, what's going on?" he asked.

Chad gestured toward Ishida's bed. "He's been talking in his sleep on and off for a while now. It woke us both up."

"Oh?" Ichigo slowly climbed to his feet and turned the bedside lamp on to the lowest setting as to not wake Orihime and Ishida. Looking down at Ishida, who was fast asleep and curled in a ball under the covers, he scowled. _Damn that Ishida for waking us up while he's sleeping like a rock._

"Should we wake him?" asked Chad.

Although he was very tempted by Chad's suggestion, Ichigo shook his head. "Nah, he'll quiet down eventually. Yuzu used to talk in her sleep when she was a kid, but she was usually quiet after a few minutes. Ishida's fine."

"You wouldn't say that if you heard some of the things he's been saying."

Ichigo frowned. "Why? What did he say?"

Chad thought for a while. "Just a few words like 'Sensei,' 'Sorry,' 'Can't protect,' and just now, 'Forgive me.' "

Ichigo pieced the words together in his mind and groaned. "Oh man. I think I know what he's dreaming about now."

"You do?"

Ichigo nodded and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Chad, did you know that when Ishida was a kid, a group of hollows killed his grandfather right in front of him?"

Chad's eyes widened. "No, I didn't know that."

"Well, they did. His grandfather was also his sensei who trained him, and for years Ishida blamed the Shinigami for not coming to help them in time. He saw all Shinigami as scum, and that's why he sought me out and challenged me to see who could kill the most hollows. I wouldn't be too surprised if he's dreaming of the day his sensei died."

"Oh." With that, Chad and Ichigo fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts and memories.

Chad's right hand closed protectively around the medallion he wore around his neck. He remembered the day he received the medallion, how his _abuelo_ had stood protectively in front of him to take the numerous blows that had been meant for him. _That day…I had the strength to fight back. I could have knocked those men down to keep them from hurting Abuelo…but I was afraid. Afraid that I would get hurt instead, and so I just watched. I was a coward…_

Shuddering at the memory, Chad bowed his head. _I see now…Ishida and I both had grandfathers who meant the world to us, and we both do whatever we can to honor their memory. I can't even begin to imagine what Ishida must have gone through, watching his grandfather die. It was hard enough for me to see Abuelo suffer on my behalf, but if the villagers had killed him that day, and he died to protect me, I never would have forgiven myself.  
_

Ichigo, too, was pondering Ishida's words. _After all these years, he still blames himself for not helping his sensei when the hollows attacked. It's something he lives with everyday. Even worse, there was no one around to tell him that it wasn't his fault. To carry that kind of burden for so many years…I know all too well how that feels._

_The last time we visited Mom's grave, Dad told me that he never blamed me for her death. I felt better after hearing him say that, but deep down I still know the truth. That bastard Grand Fisher was attracted to MY reiatsu. It was MY soul that he wanted to eat, and because of that, Mom died trying to protect me. _Ichigo sighed. _Ishida knows the truth, just like I do. The guilt never really goes away, because the past can never change._

Ishida moved slightly in his sleep. "Sorry…" he murmured.

"Kurosaki-kun?" Ichigo turned his head and saw Orihime sitting up on her cot and rubbing the sleep away from her eyes. "What's going on?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Oh, great. Thanks to Ishida's sleeptalking, now _all_ of us are awake."

* * *

"_Uryuu."_

_Ishida was standing face-to-face with his grandfather at the edge of the stream where they'd spent so many hours training together. To Ishida, it was all too surreal. The last time he saw his grandfather, he had to look up to see his face; now _he_ towered over the older man by several inches._

"_Sensei, it's been so long," Ishida whispered, bowing his head in shame. "I—I'm so sorry about everything."_

_Ishida Souken shook his head sadly. "Uryuu, my boy, how could you let this happen?"_

_Upon hearing the disappointment in his sensei's voice, Ishida felt tears come to his eyes. "I know I disobeyed you by removing the glove after you told me never to do so, but I had no other choice! Kurotsuchi, that—that monster of a Shinigami, was planning to torture Inoue! He had already killed __**you**__, along with countless other Quincies! After all that he'd done, I couldn't let him hurt anyone else! I couldn't let him live! I had to destroy him, even if I had to die myself!"_

"_But in the end, you both survived, and your powers are no more."_

_Ishida clenched his fists tightly. "I know. And because of that, now I can't fight hollows or protect the ones I care about anymore."_

"_The ones you care about?" Souken asked thoughtfully. "Like who?"_

_Before Ishida could answer, a familiar roar suddenly filled the air. "Hollows!" he gasped.

* * *

_"What's happening?" Orihime whispered.

For the past several minutes, Ishida's breathing had gradually become faster, more erratic, and his head began tossing and turning restlessly on his pillow. Every now and then a few moans would escape from his lips, but still he did not wake up.

Ichigo's eyes flew to the monitor above Ishida's head that was hooked to the pulse oximeter. It showed that Ishida's heart rate was increasing, and despite receiving supplemental oxygen, his O2 sat levels were beginning to fall. Ichigo frowned. _What the hell? Is he still dreaming about his grandfather?_

The three teenagers continued to watch Ishida's internal struggle with horrified fascination, unable to tear their eyes away, yet unsure of what to do. Finally Ichigo couldn't take it anymore.

"That's it, I'm waking him up," he said grimly.

* * *

"_Up there!" Ishida yelled, pointing toward the sky. Four hollows were descending toward them, arms outstretched and mouths open to reveal sharp, curved claws and yellow jagged teeth._

"_Uryuu, get back!" Souken shouted as he summoned his bow. He shot an arrow at the closest hollow, which dodged the arrow with an expert flip and kept on coming toward them._

"_Sensei, NO!" Ishida yelled, instinctively extending his right arm in order to summon his bow. His Quincy cross dangled from his wrist and glowed briefly with blue flames, giving Ishida a split second of hope that his powers had returned. Then, as quickly as they appeared, the flames faded away, leaving nothing behind._

"_No…this can't be happening…not now!" Ishida whispered. Once again he extended his arm, not once but multiple times, but each time his bow failed to form, and his cross never burst into flames again. By this time the first of the hollows had reached his sensei, knocking the older man roughly against a tree. "SENSEI!!" Ishida screamed, breaking into a run toward his grandfather._

"_Uryuu…stay…back!" Souken panted as he struggled to his feet. Three large cuts from the Hollow's claws ran across his chest, staining his cape with crimson blood. "You must…run…away!"_

"_**I WON'T**__!" Ishida screamed. "I won't abandon you again!" Looking around frantically for a weapon, he found a long thick club and picked it up. With a cry of anger, he ran toward the hollow that just attacked his sensei and swung the club firmly at its back._

_The club broke cleanly in two, and the hollow turned to look at Ishida with narrowed eyes. "Foolish human child, you're not even WORTH eating," it hissed. Then, before Ishida could register what was happening, the hollow grabbed him by his shirt collar and threw him headfirst toward the stream. _

"_Uryuu!" Souken called desperately as Ishida fell into the water. "Uryuu! Uryuu! Uryuu!"_

_As his sensei's cries filled his ears, Ishida suddenly remembered Kurotsuchi Mayuri's cackling words when he raved about his Quincy research: __**The last one was a grubby old man who kept screaming out the name of his student…it was all so pathetic…**_

"_No," Ishida whispered, his hands flying to his head to cover his ears. "Not this! I don't want to hear this!"_

"_Uryuu! Uryuu!" His grandfather's cries sounded much weaker now._

"_Sensei…I'm coming!" Ishida gasped as he managed to stagger to his feet in the knee-deep stream. Before he could move, another hollow suddenly attacked him from behind and shoved him back into the water. He gasped as his head landed sharply against a rock, stunning him, leaving him unable to move. The water then coursed over his face, cutting off his air supply, filling his nose and mouth, pinning him underwater, choking him…_

_Not again…not again…_

"_Uryuu! Uryuu! Ury—!" The cries suddenly stopped, and then all Ishida could hear was silence._

_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!**_

"_Ishida! Ishida!"_

* * *

"Ishida! Ishida, wake up!" Ichigo yelled as he leaned over the bed and grabbed Ishida's shoulders. "Hurry, someone turn on the big light above the bed so I can see what's going on!"

Chad nodded and flipped the light switch. As light filled the room, it became clearer than ever that Ishida was in bad shape. His entire body was shaking, his breaths were coming out in short gasps, and his face was twisted into an expression of pain. "Stop…" he moaned, kicking and flailing his arms and legs wildly as though trying to fend off an unseen attacker. "No…NO!!"

"Ishida-kun!" Orihime screamed as she reached out and grabbed one of Ishida's arms to hold it down. "Ishida-kun, stop that! You'll hurt yourself!"

"Ishida, snap out of it!" Ichigo shouted, shaking the dark-haired boy urgently. "If you keep going on like this, you'll…WHOA!"

He jumped back as one of Ishida's arms came dangerously close to smacking him in the nose. "SHIT! Inoue, grab his other arm! Chad, hold his legs down! Oy, Ishida, can you hear me?"

A loud beeping sound drew everyone's attention, and Ichigo cursed. _His O2 sats are still dropping…he's not getting enough oxygen again!_ Not knowing what else to do, Ichigo brought his hand back and slapped Ishida across the face, _hard_. "WAKE UP!!" he roared.

"AHHHHH!" With a terrified cry, Ishida's eyes snapped open. Chad and Orihime immediately let go of him and backed away as Ishida quickly sat up in bed, still struggling for breath and panting heavily. His eyes darted frantically in all directions as though looking for something. "S-Sensei?" he gasped.

Ichigo shook his head. "He's not here, Ishida."

"It was just a dream, Ishida-kun!" said Orihime. "You're here, you're safe now!"

"A dream?" Ishida whispered. He raised a hand to the cheek where Ichigo slapped him and winced.

"Sorry about that," Ichigo apologized. "I didn't want to hit you too hard, but I had to wake you up _somehow_. What were you dreaming about, anyway?"

Ishida couldn't answer. His chest hurt from breathing so hard, his limbs felt like jelly, and his head could not stop spinning. _Sensei…the hollows…_He shivered, suddenly feeling as though an icy chill had just descended throughout the room. _Not again…not again…please, not again…_

"Hey, are you all right, Ishida?" Ichigo asked in concern.

Ishida didn't hear Ichigo. His mind was currently preoccupied with trying to figure out why so many things had happened to him in less than two weeks. First there was the battle against Kurotsuchi in Soul Society, where he lost his powers and nearly lost his life. _Then_ there was the incident at the pool; how was it that he survived against both hollow and Shinigami attacks, only to nearly drown at the hands of a _water balloon, _of all things? _Disgraceful._ Then as if _that_ wasn't bad enough, he had to suffer the indignity of having his clothes cut off before getting sent to the hospital wrapped in blankets like a helpless baby. And _now_…

_And now…now this nightmare where once again, I was too weak to save Sensei from the hollows? Where I actually had to hear his screams? His __**dying**__ screams? It's too much…too much…_As this last thought left Ishida's mind, he finally felt himself break.

A horrible sound between a sob and a moan tore from Ishida's throat as he suddenly collapsed on his side and drew his knees to his chest, trembling and crying hysterically. For a split second the other three could only stare at their friend in shock and horror. How could this sobbing figure curled in a ball on his bed be the strong-willed Ishida that they all knew?

Ichigo was the first to snap out of the trance. "Ishida, no!" he yelled as he reached out and wrapped his arms around Ishida's shoulders, gently lifting him into a sitting position. Ishida instantly stiffened, but he was crying too hard to resist as Ichigo awkwardly held him close and let him rest his head against his shoulder. "Shhh, calm down, Ishida," he muttered. "You're safe now. It's all right, it's okay."

The words came easily to his mouth. After all, he'd said them many times before whenever he had to comfort his sisters. _Nightmares…scraped knees…whenever they needed me, I was there for them. _Of course, Karin and Yuzu were always small enough for him to hold them in his lap, whereas Ishida was almost as tall as he was and a guy nonetheless. Even still, he had to improvise. Seeing Ishida in pain had brought out the protective big brother in him, and he knew that he couldn't let Ishida cry without at least attempting to comfort him.

Chad wordlessly reached out and took Ishida's hand in his own, giving it a soft squeeze. He never knew what to say in situations like these, and thought it best to keep silent. Orihime sidestepped around Ichigo and stood close to Ishida, rubbing his back reassuringly. "Shhh," she whispered. "Don't cry, Ishida-kun. Please don't cry. It's okay. It's okay."

_No, it's not okay, _Ishida thought as Orihime's words managed to reach him through the numbness that was slowly engulfing him. How could it be, when all his defenses were gone and he couldn't stop the tears from falling, no matter how hard he tried? _When did I become so weak?_ he wondered. That one thought made him sob even harder.

Ichigo tensed and tightened his grip on Ishida's arm. "Don't do this, Ishida," he hissed as he used his free hand to wipe some sweat from his brow. _Damn, when did it get so hot in this room?_

_Hot? _Ichigo's eyes widened in alarm, and he glanced down to see that Ishida's normally pale face was flushed and glistening with a faint sheen of sweat. With a sinking feeling, he placed his palm firmly against the other boy's forehead. Sure enough, Ishida was burning up, and despite the heat emanating from his body, he was still shivering.

"Dammit!" Ichigo cursed. "Inoue, find the call button and call the nurse. Ishida has a fever!"

"I got it!" As Orihime searched for the call button, Ichigo grabbed Ishida's blanket and wrapped it snugly around Ishida's shaking shoulders. "We're getting you some help," he said urgently. "Hang in there."

As Ishida's sobs quieted down, he felt his body becoming more and more limp in Ichigo's arms. He was exhausted. _I'm so tired of everything. Tired of crying, tired of feeling guilty, tired of all the pretenses, tired of being here. I shouldn't be here._

_I…give…up…_

"Ishida!" Ichigo shouted as Ishida's eyes closed and he slumped against Ichigo with a ragged sigh. He was tempted to shake Ishida awake again when suddenly there was an abrupt change in the room's atmosphere, causing everyone to freeze.

"Did you guys feel that?" Ichigo asked quietly.

Chad nodded. "The room…it seems colder somehow."

"Ishida-kun's reiatsu," Orihime whispered, her eyes wide. "It's…!"

* * *

_To be continued_…

_

* * *

_A/N: Argh! I know cliffhangers suck and I hate ending on one, but if I went into more detail then this chapter would be too long. Please R/R, and thanks again for reading!


	7. Vigil

Chad, Orihime, and Ichigo watched silently as Ishida's nurse, whose nametag read Mihara Ayako, lifted Ishida's shirt and pressed the diaphragm of her stethoscope to his bare chest. Both of Ishida's eyes were closed. His cheeks were still wet with tears, and his breaths were quick and slightly shaky, but other than that, he looked like he was sleeping.

After a while, Mihara readjusted Ishida's shirt, turned to the teenagers, and smiled reassuringly. "Don't look so worried. Your friend has a temperature of 38.6°C (101.5°F), but that's still a low-grade fever. We see this often in near-drowning patients. They lose a lot of body heat when they're submerged under water, and developing a fever is how the body compensates for the heat that is lost."

"There isn't anything else wrong with him, is there?" asked Orihime.

"Well, his blood pressure is a bit low, but his father made a note in his chart stating that he has a history of hypotension, so I'm not too worried about that. His breathing rate and heart rate are slightly faster due to his fever, but both are stable and his oxygen levels are back to where they should be. I should be able to take him off the cannula in another hour."

"Can't you give him any medicine for the fever?" asked Chad.

Mihara shook her head. "Medicine isn't recommended for low grade fevers since they usually resolve by themselves. The best medicine for him now is rest and plenty of fluids."

Suddenly there was a crackling sound on the speaker. "Ayako-san, when you're finished with Ishida-san, please go to room 815; Itsuki-san needs your assistance immediately."

Mihara frowned and pressed the call button. "I can't leave now, Kaori-san, I need to…"

"Go on ahead, Mihara-san," Ichigo said quickly. "We can handle things from here. Just tell us where the extra washcloths and a basin are, and we'll try and bring his fever down."

Orihime nodded earnestly. "Your other patient needs you more. The three of us can take care of Ishida-kun."

"That isn't your job to do," Mihara protested. "You three aren't even supposed to be here right now. You're not family, and Ishida-sensei wouldn't like it if…"

"My father owns the Kurosaki Clinic, and he taught me how to take care of patients who have a fever," Ichigo said quietly. "I understand if Ishida's dad doesn't want us around right now, but Ishida is our friend and we're not leaving him alone in the hospital while he's sick. Please, Mihara-san. Let us stay and take care of him."

"It's the least we can do," said Chad.

_Kurosaki…so this is the boy who saved Uryuu-kun's life? _Mihara studied Ichigo closely. She was sure Ishida Ryuuken would disapprove of her leaving his son alone with three teenage friends, but she also had the feeling that Ichigo truly meant what he said about caring for Ishida.

Finally Mihara nodded. "All right then. The basin is in the cabinet below the sink, and the washcloths are in the bathroom. Cover him lightly. Remember, his fever is mild, so there's no need to cool him down excessively. Make sure he drinks lots of water when he wakes up. I'll come back and check on him later, but call me immediately if anything changes, all right?"

"We will," the three teenagers said as Mihara left the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click. Once she was gone, Ichigo ran a hand through his hair and let out an angry growl.

"This is all my fault," he muttered. "Ishida didn't get a fever because he was underwater for a long time, it was because I forgot to keep him warm _after _we pulled him out!"

"Don't, Ichigo," Chad said firmly. "We don't know that for sure, and at any rate, blaming yourself isn't going to help Ishida get better."

Ichigo scowled, but nodded. "You're right, Chad. Sorry about that." As he stood up and headed to the bathroom, he continued, "I'm going to get the basin and fill it with water. First things first, we have to make Ishida more comfortable and try to bring his fever down."

"But Kurosaki-kun, what about his…" Orihime started to say, but Ichigo interrupted her.

"I know, Inoue," he said darkly as he came back to Ishida's bedside with a water-filled hand basin and several clean washcloths in his arms. "I felt it, too, but we can't do anything about it right now. As long as nothing's changed, I don't think we have to worry about _that _just yet. Come on, guys. Help me get these wet and put them on Ishida's forehead and arms."

Orihime and Chad nodded as they each dipped a washcloth in the basin and twisted it dry. Bringing her washcloth to Ishida, whose blanket was folded neatly over his waist and left his arms and chest uncovered, Orihime laid it gently against Ishida's right arm. As she did so, Ishida shuddered and let out a tiny whimper that nearly broke her heart.

"Shhh," she whispered as she felt the washcloth slowly absorb the fever-induced heat through his skin. "I know it feels cold, Ishida-kun, but you have to bear with it."

"He'll be all right, Inoue," Ichigo said as he placed another washcloth on Ishida's forehead. At the washcloth's cool touch, Ishida gasped and suddenly arched his neck, but Ichigo shook his head and pressed his hand firmly against the washcloth, ensuring that it stayed in place.

"Easy there," Chad murmured as he draped another washcloth across Ishida's left arm. Eventually Ishida relaxed and his head fell back against his pillow, but as his friends continued their ministrations, a few tears slipped unnoticed down his cheeks.

* * *

"Kurosaki-kun?"

Ichigo looked up as he carelessly threw the washcloth he had been using to wipe the sweat away from Ishida's face into the water-filled basin. "What is it, Inoue?"

Orihime hesitated and bit her lip. "Ishida-kun's reiatsu…it's not getting any better."

Ichigo's face darkened. "I know," he said quietly. "It's been over thirty minutes since he passed out, and the room's as cold now as it was back then."

Chad didn't speak, but he knew what the others were talking about because he felt it, too. Shortly after Ishida lost consciousness, they had all felt something deep inside of him shatter, causing his reiatsu to plummet to nearly undetectable levels. The sudden drop in Ishida's reiatsu left behind a cold, empty chill in the room, an icy feeling that only Chad, Ichigo, and Orihime could detect. They knew this because Mihara hadn't been bothered by the cold at all. And yet, despite his weakened reiatsu, Ishida's vital signs remained stable. It didn't make any sense.

From the bed, Ishida's face suddenly twisted in anguish, and he let out a shaky gasp as his hands slowly tightened into fists. His breathing became faster and irregular as though he were trying very hard to keep from crying, and his shoulders began shaking as well.

"Look at him," Orihime whispered, her hands flying to her mouth. "He's in pain!"

"We don't know that for sure, Inoue," said Ichigo, but he knew he was just fooling himself. Any idiot could take one look at Ishida and tell that he was in distress. _This is just like when he had his nightmare, except back then, he was more scared than hurt like he is now._

"I can't watch this," Orihime said quietly. Then, as Ichigo and Chad looked on in surprise, she placed her hands to her hairclips. "Shun'ou. Ayame. _Souten Kisshun_."

"What?!" Ichigo exclaimed as Orihime's hairpins sparkled and her two fairies appeared before her. "Inoue, you can't heal him now! Mihara-san is coming back to check on him soon, and if she finds out that his temperature went back to normal in one hour, then…"

"I know," Orihime replied. Turning to her fairies, she said, "Shun'ou, Ayame, I don't want you to heal Ishida-kun's fever, but please, can you heal his reiatsu for me?"

Ichigo and Chad were stunned by Orihime's request. "Is that even possible?" Chad wondered.

The two fairies flew over to Ishida and briefly bathed him with pale golden light before shaking their heads. "Our apologies, Orihime-san," said Shun'ou. "But you're asking the impossible. We can't heal Ishida-san's soul. It's beyond our abilities."

"Y-You can't heal him?" Orihime stammered. "But why not?"

Ayame looked sad. "Ishida-san's resolve has been shattered, and his heart has suffered a great emotional blow. Our powers have no effect on intangible objects such as the heart and soul."

"Ishida's resolve has been shattered?" Ichigo echoed in disbelief. "How?" _No. No way. It's impossible. Ishida has always been strong-minded and stubborn, never afraid to back down from a fight. What could possibly reduce him to such a pitiful state?_

Shun'ou folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "That, we don't know. Rest assured, Ishida-san's resolve will recover slowly on its own, but I'm afraid that for the time being, his heart has closed itself off within a barrier where all he knows is fear, doubt, pain, and sadness. As long as his heart remains closed within that barrier, he will not wake up."

"What?" Orihime exclaimed in horror. "That _can't _be!"

"Well then, how do we break through this barrier?" asked Chad.

Ayame shook her head. "The barrier was created by Ishida-san himself, and we don't have the power to destroy it," she said. "Orihime-san, you and the others must try to get through to him. If anyone can save him from himself…it's you three. Best of luck."

"Wait!" Orihime screamed, but it was too late. The two fairies vanished in a twinkle of light and reappeared as petals on her hairpin.

It was several minutes before anyone dared to speak. "Ishida-kun's heart…trapped in a barrier where all he knows is sadness?" Orihime whispered. "A barrier that _he_ created? Why would he do something like that?"

Ichigo didn't know what to do. _Is this why the room feels so cold, why your reiatsu is so weak? Ishida…what the hell happened to you? And where are you now?_

A soft cry from the hospital bed drew everyone's attention to Ishida. Tears were now pouring down his cheeks in streams as he sobbed quietly into his pillow. "Sensei…" he whimpered. "Help me…please…"

Orihime, Chad and Ichigo stared at Ishida in shock. It was not Ishida's voice that they heard just now, but the terrified pleas of a frightened little boy. They had never heard Ishida sound so vulnerable before, even when he was yelling at the paramedics, and it scared them to the core.

"I have to do something," Ichigo muttered as he quickly reached out and laid his hand over Ishida's. Ishida gasped and tried to pull his hand away, but Ichigo held on.

"Ishida, can you hear me? It's Kurosaki. Look…I know you're in there somewhere, and that you're afraid to wake up, but that's okay, because me, Chad, and Inoue…we're all here, and we're not leaving you. You really think we're going to let you shut us out just like that? Don't give up, Ishida. Hang in there. You're stronger than you give yourself credit for. Remember the time we fought the Menos Grande together in the park? Back then you…"

* * *

_Thunder roared, lightning flashed, and heavy rains fell relentlessly around eight-year-old Ishida Uryuu as he ran through the forest where he'd spent so many hours training with his sensei. The rain plastered his hair to his face, drenched his clothes, and mixed with the tears falling freely from both eyes, but he did not care. He had no idea how long he had been wandering around trying to find shelter from the rain, but his body was numb with cold, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep running._

_Finally his knees buckled, and he collapsed headfirst into a large muddy puddle. His small hands dug into the wet ground beneath him as he tried to push himself up, but found that he lacked the strength to do so. All the while, the rain continued to fall mercilessly on him, chilling and soaking his shivering form. Overwhelmed by fear, confusion, and cold, Uryuu slowly curled into fetal position and gave in to his tears. "Sensei…" he pleaded. "Help me…Sensei…"_

* * *

"I don't think I ever thanked you, Ishida-kun," Orihime whispered as she gently wiped Ishida's face with a handkerchief. "Thank you…for saving me from that horrible captain who blew up his men. When Aramaki-san was carrying me away, I saw the tips of a white hand flying at us. Then just when I thought it was about to grab us, it exploded. That was you, wasn't it? You shot an arrow at the hand to protect us so we could get away. But you stayed behind to fight, and…"

Orihime was almost in tears by now. "Why did you send me away? I could have helped you fight! Instead I was left by myself, not knowing whether everyone else was alive or dead…" Her face twisted in pain at the memory, and finally she let her tears fall. "Ishida-kun, please…"

Chad laid a hand on Orihime's shaking shoulder. "It's all right, Inoue. It's all right."

Ichigo clenched his fists in frustration. He had lost track of how long he, Chad, and Orihime had spent talking to Ishida, holding his hand and reassuring him that everything was going to be all right, but in the end, it made no difference. Ishida continued to cry and thrash about in his sleep with no sign of improvement, and worst of all, his reiatsu remained as cold as ever.

Ishida squirmed uncomfortably in his bed. "No…" he moaned. "Sensei…"

Ichigo frowned. _Every time he calls out a name, it's always "Sensei," never "Dad." Why is that? Does this mean the two of them aren't close? Ishida's dad owns this hospital so he's obviously still around, and he made Ishida stay at the hospital overnight, so he **must **care for Ishida. But then…why hasn't he stopped by to see how Ishida is doing? Where is he now?_

"Don't…go…" Ishida whispered. The others froze. "Ishida?" Ichigo asked carefully.

Tears streamed from Ishida's eyes. "Don't…go…" he repeated. "Please?"

"Ishida-kun, we're still here!" Orihime cried tearfully. "We're right beside you! Why can't you sense that we're here?"

_She has a point, _Ichigo thought. _How can we comfort someone who doesn't even know we're here? What are we missing? Ishida…what's making you suffer so much?_

Ishida's face crumpled as he began to cry softly. "Don't…want…to be…alone…" he sobbed.

"What the…?" Ichigo was confused. _If Ishida's afraid to be alone, then why did he close his heart to everything outside of his own pain? He's just isolating himself even more, the idiot!_

He heard a sniffle beside him and turned to see Orihime sitting on the bed beside Ishida. "I know what it feels like to be alone, Ishida-kun," she whispered, wiping her tears away. "My big brother was the only family I had, and when he died, there was no one else left to take care of me. I felt so alone, it was awful! I didn't know how I was going to live without him, but then Tatsuki-chan became my friend and she taught me how to laugh again! I don't know where I'd be today without her."

Chad nodded. "We are the same," he said quietly as he sat down beside Orihime. "I lost both parents when I was eight years old. I didn't have any other relatives to take care of me, so I was sent to Mexico to live with my _abuelo_. I was so angry and misguided back then, but Abuelo got through to me and taught me to be a better person. If it were not for his guidance, then I would probably be living on the streets of Mexico right now, or worse…I'd be dead."

Ichigo sighed and hung his head. "Listening to the two of you talk…how can I even compare? My mother…I loved her so much, and it destroyed my family when she died. I didn't want to believe that she would leave me all alone, but you know something? I _wasn't _alone. I still had my dad and my sisters, and we helped each other through the pain of losing her. I can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like to lose my entire family. We were all pretty lucky, the three of us, to have people who were there to comfort us when we needed it the most."

"And Ishida?" asked Chad. "Who did _he _have to comfort him after his grandfather died?"

"I don't know." That was the truth, but even as Ichigo said those words, a horrible realization had pushed its way into his mind. _Inoue was nine when her brother died. I was nine when Mom died. Chad was eight when his parents died. How old was Ishida when his grandfather died? Wasn't he around eight or nine, too? That means we all lost someone we loved when we were around the same age! I still had my family, Chad had his abuelo, and Orihime had Tatsuki, but who did Ishida have to turn to after his grandfather died? Seeing how his own father hasn't even come by to see him, he probably wasn't around much when Ishida was young. That means Ishida had no one to comfort him after his grandfather's death. He really was all alone…_

"I had no idea," Ichigo murmured. As his heart swelled with sympathy and sadness toward Ishida, his reiatsu involuntarily flared as well, filling the room completely with its power and warmth. Orihime gasped, and Chad blinked in surprise. _His reiatsu…it's as powerful as ever. But…_

"Kurosaki-kun, don't!" Orihime exclaimed suddenly. "If you release your reiatsu like that, hollows might track us down here! We can't put Ishida-kun's life in danger!"

"Ah, sorry, you're right," Ichigo apologized as he tried to put a lid on his reiatsu. _What was that strange feeling just now? After my reiatsu flared up, it seemed like for a split second, I felt Ishida's reiatsu wavering, as though…wait! That's it!_

"Inoue, Chad!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Ishida's really good at sensing reiatsu, right?"

"Yeah," said Orihime. "What of it?"

"I think I know how we can get through to his heart!"

* * *

_Uryuu had no idea how long he had been lying in the rain, but he was too cold and weak to move. For the first time in his young life, he wondered what it felt like to die, because he was almost certain that he would die in this storm. His sensei was dead. His father did not love him. No one else knew or cared that he was in this forest. He was all alone…_

_Somewhere in the distance a hollow roared, making him cower in fear. "No…no please…" he whispered. He had seen firsthand what hollows had done to his grandfather and countless other people, and he didn't want to share their fate. "Help…somebody…"_

_Suddenly he heard a twig snap and gasped. Someone else was in the forest with him!_

* * *

"_Santen kesshun_, I reject!" At these words, Orihime's hairpins sparkled as Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily appeared to create a golden shield that completely surrounded Ishida's hospital bed. Turning back to Ichigo, Orihime said, "It's done, Kurosaki-kun. Any hollows passing by won't be able to sense our reiatsu through the shield."

Ichigo nodded. "Good work, Inoue. Now, here's what we're going to do. Remember back in Soul Society, when we were in the cannonball and Yoruichi-san told us to pour all our reiatsu toward the center? If we were able to break into Seireitei with the power of our reiatsu, then surely we should be able to break through the barrier around Ishida's heart! You guys ready to try it?"

Chad and Orihime nodded and moved to the left side of Ishida's bed while Ichigo stood on the right side. "Let's do this," said Chad.

Raising their hands above Ishida's chest, the three teenagers closed their eyes and concentrated on finding the barrier surrounding Ishida's heart. After a while, Chad's eyes opened. "I feel it," he said.

"I do, too," Orihime whispered. "It's so…_cold_, like a block of ice."

"That's what I'm sensing, too," said Ichigo. "All right, guys, think good thoughts and concentrate on pushing through that barrier!"

With that, the teenagers closed their eyes once again and focused their reiatsu directly against the barrier surrounding Ishida's heart. On the bed, Ishida's breathing suddenly became more and more agitated as his body began to quiver. "No…no…" he moaned tearfully. "Please…"

Ignoring Ishida's pleas, Ichigo stubbornly pressed forward. "He's resisting," he muttered. "He's not letting us in. Come on, Ishida, don't do this…"

"Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime asked suddenly. "Do you remember the myth we read in class about Queen Niobe?"

Ichigo frowned. _What a totally random question to ask at a time like this._ "Queen Niobe? That's Greek mythology, right? Which one was she, the one who killed her children?"

"No, you're thinking about Medea," said Chad. "Niobe was the queen whose fourteen children were killed by the god Apollo and his twin sister Artemis as punishment for her pride."

Orihime nodded. "The pain of losing her children was too much for Niobe to bear. She could never stop crying for them, and later her heart turned to stone, along with the rest of her body. Eventually she turned into a rock that still weeps for her children to this day."

Ichigo was amazed that Chad and Orihime could remember so much about a mythical queen, but then again, they weren't near the top of their class for nothing.

"What if…" Orihime sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "What if Ishida-kun's heart has already turned to stone? What if he never wakes up again?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Don't think like that, Inoue," he said quietly. "We'll bring Ishida back, one way or another, you'll see."

Orihime nodded sadly and focused her attention back on Ishida. _Come back to us, Ishida-kun. Please let us in_, she begged silently.

_Let us share your pain_, thought Ichigo. _You don't have to carry it all on your shoulders, Ishida._

_Let us help you,_ thought Chad. _Don't push us away. Don't close your heart to us._

Ishida's back arched as he suddenly cried out in pain, and it took all of Orihime's self control not to break her concentration. With her eyes still closed, she imagined the combined power of everyone's reiatsu surrounding Ishida, lifting him up, embracing him and healing his broken heart. Focusing on that mental image, she felt her powers swell to greater proportions. _Ishida-kun…_

* * *

_Uryuu kept his eyes closed as he lay completely still in the rain. He wondered how much longer he could survive in this storm. Maybe if he just fell asleep…_

_A soft hand gently touched his shoulder. With a startled gasp, he shrank back and weakly raised his head to see who was there. It was too dark to see clearly, but he was able to make out three dark shadows leaning toward him. His eyes became large with terror. "No…no…no!" he whimpered._

_"Whew. I thought he was dead," said a young boy's voice._

_"Don't be afraid," said another voice, soft and deep. "We're not going to hurt you."_

_**Who are these people? What do they want with me? **Overwhelmed with fear and confusion, Uryuu broke down and began to cry._

_"Shhh, it's okay, you're all right now." Uryuu flinched as someone else laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. **Don't touch me**, he silently begged._

_The sky suddenly became brighter, and he squeezed his eyes tightly shut to block out the light. Then he realized that it was no longer raining, and he cautiously opened his eyes to see a soft, golden light surrounding him on all sides. "H-how…" he gasped, his tears momentarily forgotten._

_"It's all right. I created a barrier to keep out the rain and the hollows," a young girl's voice spoke up. "You're safe now."_

_As Uryuu let his eyes adjust to the light, he realized that the three shadows kneeling beside him were really three children about his age, two boys and a girl. One boy was dark-haired, dark-skinned, and extremely tall, and he wore a gold medallion around his neck. The other boy was not as tall as the first and had bright orange hair sticking in all directions. The girl had honey-colored hair that fell to her shoulders, and she wore two flower hairpins in her hair. Her hairpins looked as though they were missing several petals._

_Uryuu's eyes widened. "W-Who are you?" he stammered._

_The other children smiled. "It took a while, but we finally found you," said the orange-haired boy. "Come on, we're bringing you back with us."_

_"I don't understand," Uryuu murmured. He tried to sit up and was surprised to find that he had the energy to do so with ease. Looking down at his clothes, he had another shock when he realized that they were slowly drying. Even his tears were drying from his face, and for the first time in ages, he felt warmth slowly creeping back into his bones. "What's happening to me?" he whispered._

_"I'm using my Shun Shun Rikka to warm you up," the girl replied. "Three of them are keeping out the rain, and two of them are healing you. Are you still cold?"_

_"I…" Uryuu frowned. Something wasn't right. He was sure that he'd never seen these children before, yet there was something familiar about them that told him that they were not his enemies. So far they had done nothing but help him. But was it safe to trust them?_

_The orange-haired boy snorted impatiently. "Look, we don't have all day. I told you before, we're here to bring you back with us. Do you think you can stand?"_

_Uryuu tried to stand up, but instantly felt dizzy and fell sideways into the dark-haired boy's arms. "I don't think so," he whispered. "I'm sorry."_

_"No problem." The dark-haired boy easily scooped Uryuu up in his arms. "If you can't walk on your own, then we'll carry you. Come on, let's get out of this place."_

_As the four children made their way through the forest, the girl with honey-colored hair made sure her barrier covered them at all times to keep the rain from falling on them. She reached over and took Uryuu's hand in her own, squeezing it gently. The orange-haired boy walked in front of everyone else, every now and then turning his head to give Uryuu a friendly grin. Uryuu stared back at him in confusion, unsure of how to react. How could anyone be so cheerful?_

_"Almost there," the dark-haired boy whispered as he tightened his grip on Uryuu._

_Uryuu looked around at the friendly faces surrounding him and finally relaxed as a small, soft smile slowly crept to his lips. For the first time in what seemed like a long time, he did not feel so alone anymore._

* * *

"Keep concentrating your reiatsu against the barrier! I think we're almost there!" said Ichigo.

"No…we're already there," said Chad. "Can't you feel it? The barrier is starting to melt!"

"What? Whoa, you're right!" said Ichigo. He felt the icy barrier surrounding Ishida's heart beginning to tremble beneath the force of his incredible reiatsu, and he quickly glanced over at Ishida. The dark-haired boy had stopped shaking entirely, and his sobs were subsiding as well. Ichigo's eyes widened. "Look, Ishida's calming down! It's working! _Push through!_" he yelled.

The three teenagers concentrated hard and focused their reiatsu into one giant burst of energy that collided against the barrier with powerful strength. Suddenly Orihime gasped. "Did you feel that?" she whispered.

Ichigo and Chad felt it, too. _Warmth_. Ishida's reiatsu, which had been dormant for so long, suddenly flared up and burst through the remains of the barrier that had imprisoned his heart for so long. Unable to withstand the rejuvenated force of his reiatsu, the barrier collapsed entirely, and a welcome surge of warmth swept throughout the room, pushing away the chill that had taken residence there for the last few hours.

"The barrier's down!" Ichigo exclaimed excitedly. "Ishida's reiatsu is back…he's going to be okay!"

"Thank goodness!" Orihime sighed as she squeezed Ishida's hands. "He must have recognized our reiatsu and known that he wasn't alone anymore, so he came back!"

"See that?" said Chad. "He already _looks _different."

Sure enough, there was a definite change in Ishida's appearance. For the first time in hours, he truly looked as though he were sleeping. His sobs had faded, his body had stopped trembling, his breathing was more regular, and his tear-streaked face looked relaxed and calm. But…

"Why isn't he waking up yet?" Orihime whispered. "Did we do something wrong?"

"No, I think he's all right," said Chad. "We should just leave him alone."

Orihime spun around. "Sado-kun…?"

"Ishida was trapped for hours," Chad explained. "He must be very vulnerable right now. If we try to force him to wake up now, he might think we're dangerous and barricade himself again. I don't want that to happen. The best thing we can do for him is to let him sleep and recover on his own."

"You're right," Ichigo agreed. "And when he does wake up, we don't mention _anything _about the pool, his nightmare, his grandfather, or anything else that might upset him and send his heart back into hiding, okay? Not until he's ready."

"But when will that be?" Orihime asked as she took out her handkerchief and wiped Ishida's tears away.

"I don't know," said Ichigo. _Hopefully not too long._

* * *

Ichigo looked at his watch and yawned. _4:55 a.m. I can't believe it's almost dawn._ He glanced over at Orihime, who had fallen asleep on her cot, and Chad, who was leaning back in his recliner with both eyes closed. Ichigo couldn't tell if Chad was awake or not, but it didn't matter. He himself had awakened from a 30-minute nap not too long ago, and Chad was still awake then. _As long as one of us is awake to keep an eye on Ishida, it's okay if the others sleep._

With a sigh, Ichigo stood up and went to check on Ishida. Ishida no longer required supplemental oxygen; Mihara had come by the room hours ago to remove his nasal cannula, saying that he was well enough to breathe room air without it. His breathing still had a harsh quality to it, but for the most part it was softer in sound. Even more importantly, he had not cried or even made a sound in his sleep for quite some time, which was, in Ichigo's opinion, a great improvement.

Looking down at Ishida's sleeping face, Ichigo reached out and gently laid a hand on Ishida's forehead. Ishida's skin was still warm to the touch, but it definitely felt cooler than before and was not as flushed in appearance._ Good_, Ichigo thought. _His fever's finally going down._

Suddenly Ishida drew in a sharp intake of air and began to stir. As Ichigo held his breath and watched in anticipation, Ishida's dark blue eyes slowly flickered open. Ichigo smiled.

"Hey, you're finally awake," he said quietly. "How are you feeling?"

Ishida slowly turned his head to look at Ichigo, blinking sleepily. His eyes were cloudy and unfocused, his eyelids drooping as though he could barely keep his eyes open. He did not speak, and there was no emotion on his face aside from sheer exhaustion.

_Drained,_ Ichigo realized with a pang. That was the only word he could think of to describe Ishida at that moment. _Physically drained, because he doesn't look like he has the energy to move. Mentally drained, because of whatever hell he went through in the past that ended up destroying his resolve. Heck, he even looks paler, as though he's been drained of his blood…_

Shaking the disturbing thoughts from his head, Ichigo reached out and took one of Ishida's hands in his own. "Squeeze my hand, Ishida," he ordered.

Ishida closed his eyes and didn't move, making Ichigo wonder at first if Ishida even understood him. Then he felt it: a soft, barely perceptible squeeze as Ishida weakly curled two fingers against his hand. It was enough for Ichigo to let out a huge sigh of relief. _Good, at least he's responsive._

Remembering Mihara's words about keeping Ishida well hydrated, Ichigo uncapped a bottle of spring water and stuck a straw in it. Setting the bottle on Ishida's bedside table, he slipped his arms around Ishida's shoulders and slowly lifted him up. At the sudden movement, Ishida's eyes flew open in surprise and he let out a weak cry of protest.

"Shhh, it's okay," Ichigo whispered, giving Ishida's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry, I know you're tired, but I need to get some water in you before you go back to sleep, all right?"

Ishida gazed dully at Ichigo but didn't answer. His body was limp and felt extremely heavy, and Ichigo wondered if he would be able to support Ishida with one arm while he reached for the bottle. _Nah, I shouldn't chance it._ Just as he was about to set Ishida back down, however, another arm slipped beside his own and held Ishida upright.

Startled, Ichigo looked up. "Chad…"

"I'll hold him," Chad said quietly as he sat on the bed and placed his hands firmly on Ishida's shoulders, letting Ishida lean against his chest as support.

Ichigo nodded and brought the water bottle to Ishida. "Come on, open up," he coaxed as he gently poked at Ishida's mouth with the straw. "You need to drink something, Ishida."_ Because you're dehydrated from both your fever and all the crying you've been doing for most of the night,_ he finished silently, but he kept these thoughts to himself.

With a soft sigh, Ishida parted his lips with just enough room for Ichigo to slip the straw into his mouth. "That's it," he said as he saw water moving through the straw. "You're doing great."

Ishida drank slowly for what felt like several minutes, but after finishing about half the bottle, his eyes finally closed and the straw slipped out of his mouth. Ichigo then set the bottle down and Chad carefully lowered Ishida back on the bed.

"I'll put the rest of the bottle by your bed so that you can have more when you're thirsty," said Ichigo. When Ishida didn't respond, he frowned. "Ishida?"

Ishida's soft even breaths were the only sounds coming from him, and Ichigo smiled. "Asleep, huh?" he murmured. "I don't blame him, it's been a long night for all of us."

Chad patted Ishida's arm and stood up. "Get some rest, Ishida. The three of us aren't going anywhere tonight. If you need us for anything…"

"We'll be right here." Startled, Ichigo and Chad turned to see Orihime standing beside them. She swiftly moved past them and kneeled beside Ishida's bed, grasping one of his hands with her own. "And tomorrow, after you leave the hospital, I'll heal you so that you're all better, okay?"

Ichigo and Chad exchanged smiles. "He'd probably like that," said Chad.

Orihime nodded and rose to her feet. "I thought I felt him squeeze my hand just now," she said softly.

"Then he probably did," said Ichigo. "He's tired, but he knows we're here...all of us." Stifling a yawn with one hand, he added, "Come on, let's get some sleep before the sun comes up."

Exhausted from the hours they spent watching over Ishida, the three teenagers settled down in their respective "beds" and fell asleep almost immediately. As the sound of their slow, steady breathing filled the room, Ishida's eyes briefly opened. A small, tired smile tugged at the corners of his mouth before he closed his eyes and drifted back to a peaceful sleep.

_Thank you…_

* * *

_To be continued…_

* * *

A/N: Whoooooooo...this was a very hard chapter for me to write (especially all the angsty scenes), so I hope you liked what you read. As always, R/R, please!

A few notes:

1) The true extent of Shun'ou and Ayame's powers has yet to be revealed in the manga, but for this story, I put a limit on their powers.

2) Ishida is a child in his inner world because the way I saw it, that's when all his troubles began. Losing his grandfather at a young age was the first major turning point in his life that contributed to his breakdown in the last chapter. In addition, a teenage Ishida wouldn't have been receptive to others trying to help him, but a young Ishida, still innocent and vulnerable, would have been more accepting.

3) It's not a mistake that young Ishida didn't recognize Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime in their child forms, because he never knew them at that age.

4) Ichigo's excellent bedside manner comes from years of watching how his father interacts with patients at the Kurosaki Clinic.

5) I'm a big Greek mythology buff so I couldn't resist comparing Ishida's tears to those of Queen Niobe. Niobe was the Queen of Thebes who boasted that she was superior to Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, because she had seven times as many sons and daughters as Leto did. To punish Niobe for her arrogance, Apollo killed her seven sons while Artemis killed her seven daughters, leaving Niobe to weep endlessly for her loss until she turned to stone. Regarding Queen Medea, there's a lot of information about her on the web so you can look up her story if you're interested.


	8. Revelations

A/N: This was _supposed_ to be the last chapter but things have changed, and the next chapter will be the last one instead. Enjoy!_

* * *

_Shortly before 7 a.m. at Karakura Hospital, the door to room 824 slowly creaked open and a tall, imposing figure silently entered the room. Shutting the door quietly behind him, he paused, his pale eyebrows lifting in surprise to find not one, but _four_ occupants in the room, all of them sleeping. There was enough sunlight into the room for him to get a good look at all their faces, and his eyes lingered briefly on the orange-haired boy sleeping on the floor before he made his way to the patient's bed. _This_ was whom he had come to see.

The pale, dark-haired boy was lying quietly on his side with both eyes closed. His left arm lay carelessly across his stomach while his right hand, curled around a tiny silver cross, rested near his cheek. A basin filled with used washcloths lay forgotten on the bedside table, a clear testament to the care he had received during the night. Ishida Ryuuken's eyes narrowed at this sight; Mihara should have known better than to leave a mess behind. _Unless_…

He quickly glanced at the other three teenagers and then looked back at his son. Most of Uryuu's blanket had slipped off his body during the night, revealing a thin figure clad in a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants. _Where did he get those clothes from?_ Ryuuken wondered, but then he spotted the answer sitting harmlessly in the corner of the room. His eyes widened at the sight of the nearly-full duffel bag. _That's an awful lot of clothes for an overnight hospital stay…_

Turning back to Uryuu, Ryuuken reached down and pulled the blanket over his son's slim shoulders. _Some things never change_, he thought as he gently pressed his hand against Uryuu's forehead. Apparently satisfied by what he felt, he withdrew his hand and, after a brief pause, pushed a few errant strands of Uryuu's hair aside to get a better look at his son's face. "Foolish boy," he murmured, but Uryuu slept on, completely unaware of his father's presence.

With one last look at his sleeping son, Ryuuken turned and silently left the room, taking extra care to make sure that he didn't wake anyone up. Quietly closing the door behind him, he headed straight for the nurses' station and found Mihara Ayako documenting vital signs into the computer. "Good morning, Mihara-san," he greeted.

Startled, Mihara looked up. "Ah, good morning, Ishida-sensei! How are you doing? I heard that you had a rough time in the ER last night."

Ryuuken sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes. "Three separate motor vehicle accidents since 10:00 p.m. last night. There were eighteen victims altogether. Two were dead on arrival, and four are in critical condition. We were afraid we wouldn't be able to treat them all; they just kept rolling in one after another. There was so much chaos that I wasn't able to leave the ER until just now."

"I'm sorry," Mihara said sympathetically. "It must have been difficult for you, getting called to the ER on your night off and not being able to spend time with your son while he was here."

"I just came from my son's room." Ryuuken spoke as though he did not hear Mihara's last statement. "He's still asleep, but he seems to be doing very well."

Mihara smiled. "Yes, Uryuu-kun is much better now. His lungs are clear and his temperature this morning was 37.8°C (100°F), down from 38.6°C (101.5°F) at 2 a.m. I discontinued his nasal cannula around 3:00 a.m. this morning and since then his O2 sat has remained stable at 97 on room air. Would you like to see his chart? I have it right here."

"Yes, thank you, Mihara-san." Ryuuken took his son's medical chart from Mihara and paused. "Mihara-san, what are those other teenagers doing in his room? They're not immediate family members, and it's against hospital policy to have so many overnight visitors in one room. Didn't you tell them that they weren't allowed to be there?"

Mihara bowed her head. "I apologize, Ishida-sensei. I knew that you would disapprove of their staying here and told them so, but all three of them, the Kurosaki boy in particular, were quite adamant about spending the night here. They had been with Uryuu-kun since the time of his accident and were so worried about him that I felt bad about turning them away. The Kurosaki boy had Kurosaki-sensei's resolve in his eyes when we spoke, and I felt more comfortable knowing that Uryuu-kun would be in good hands with such caring friends by his side."

Ryuuken was not surprised to hear that Isshin's son had used the Kurosaki name to talk Mihara into letting him and his friends spend the night at the hospital. It was just the sort of thing Isshin did whenever he needed favors for the clinic. _Like father like son, _Ryuuken mused.

To Mihara, he said, "I'm not upset with you, Mihara-san. You're one of our best nurses here, and if you thought it was in my son's best interests to have his friends nearby, then I thank you for watching out for him. But in the future, only family members are allowed for overnight visits, and no more than two at a time. Any more than that and this hospital would be overrun."

Mihara smiled. "I understand, Ishida-sensei. Thank you."

Ryuuken nodded. "Good. I'll fill out Uryuu's discharge papers right now and place them in his chart before I go home. He's free to leave once his temperature returns to normal and stabilizes. Notify me immediately and start him on antibiotics if his fever gets any worse. Now if you'll excuse me, it's been a long night." With a curt nod of his head, he turned to leave.

"Wait, Ishida-sensei!" called Mihara. "You're not going to stay with him until he wakes up?"

Ryuuken paused in his tracks, but didn't turn around. "There's no need. His friends have kept him company all night; let them stay with him for now. I will see Uryuu soon enough."

With that, he left, leaving Mihara to wonder what exactly her superior was talking about.

* * *

Several feet away, Ichigo watched Ishida Ryuuken leave and breathed a sigh of relief. "So _that's _Ishida's father," he murmured to himself. "Dad was right when he said that the man had the personality of an iceberg. No wonder Ishida turned out the way he did."

Ichigo had awakened when Ryuuken first entered Ishida's room, but he pretended to be asleep in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. His curiosity as to why Ishida's father had waited until morning to see his bedridden son led him to follow Ryuuken to the nurses' station, and he had ducked behind the walls to eavesdrop while Ryuuken talked to Mihara. Ichigo had worried that Mihara would get in trouble for allowing him and the others to spend the night in Ishida's room, and he was prepared to defend her and explain himself to Ryuuken if need be. Fortunately Ryuuken had not been fazed by their presence and merely told Mihara not to let it happen again.

Ichigo quietly made his way back to Ishida's room and saw to his relief that none of the others were awake. He noticed that Ishida's blanket was tucked smoothly around his shoulders and smiled, recognizing this as Ryuuken's doing. He had originally assumed that Ryuuken was the type of father who didn't care about his son's well-being, but he no longer felt that way._ It's not like Ishida's dad ignored him on purpose last night. He just couldn't get away from work._

As Ichigo lay back down and closed his eyes, he thought, _Ishida, your dad might be intimidating, but he does care about you.

* * *

_"Stop following me so closely, Kurosaki. I told you before, I'm fine!"

"Quit lying, Ishida. I saw what happened just now. You nearly fell against the wall!"

"Maybe we should get you back to your room."

"Sado-kun is right, Ishida-kun. You still have a fever, you should be resting in bed!"

It was thirty minutes past noon, and Ishida was walking slowly down the hospital corridor with Ichigo, Chad and Orihime walking closely beside him. Orihime was pushing an empty wheelchair in front of her in case Ishida needed to rest, but so far Ishida had refused to sit down. Despite his weakened condition, he had insisted on getting out of bed to walk around the floor a few times in hopes of getting his strength back faster. While the nurses smiled with approval at his progress, the other three were worried that he was pushing himself too hard.

Ishida sighed and turned to look at Orihime, Ichigo, and Chad. "Please…I appreciate your concern, but I need to do this for myself. Don't try to stop me."

"No one's trying to stop you, Ishida," said Chad. "We're just looking out for you."

Ishida's face softened slightly at Chad's remarks. "I know," he said quietly. "You've all done so much for me already, and I'm grateful for that." As he finished speaking, a strange look appeared on his face, and without warning his body suddenly gave out on him.

Chad and Orihime caught him before he lost his balance completely and easily lowered him into the waiting wheelchair. "See, I _told_ you that you should be resting!" Orihime scolded. "That's enough walking; we're taking you back to your room _right now!"_

"This isn't necessary. I can still walk on my own!" Ishida protested as Ichigo took the wheelchair from Orihime and began pushing him toward his room. He tried to rise out of the wheelchair, but Ichigo immediately pushed him back down.

"Just sit down, shut up, and stop being so difficult," Ichigo ordered. "Clearly you're not well enough to take care of yourself just yet, so why don't you just be a good little patient and let us take you back to your room so you can get more sleep."

"_W-What?" _A visible vein appeared on Ishida's forehead as he turned and glared angrily at Ichigo. "What did you say?! I do _not_ need more sleep, Kurosaki!"

"Well, you can't be up walking around, either!" Ichigo retorted. "Do you really think the nurses are going to let you go home sooner if they see you pass out in the hall?"

Ishida sighed and put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry. I just want to get out of this place," he muttered. "Thanks to my father, I can't even go home until my fever resolves."

"Oh, that reminds me, Ishida!" said Ichigo. "Your dad came by your room earlier today."

Ishida looked up, his eyes wide with surprise and disbelief. "My father…came to see me?" he whispered.

Ichigo nodded as he pushed the wheelchair into Ishida's room. "Yeah, but you were still asleep. He couldn't see you last night because he was stuck working in the ER, so as soon as he got off work he stopped by to check on you. Then I followed him out to the nurses' station to make sure he didn't tear Mihara-san's head off for letting us spend the night. We broke a lot of rules in doing so, but don't worry, he's not mad. He just told Mihara-san not to let it happen again."

Ishida snorted disdainfully as he stood up and carefully climbed back into bed. "He must be really tired if he didn't care," he muttered. "Well, it's better this way."

As Ishida lay back against his pillows and closed his eyes with a tired sigh, the other three watched him carefully. The fever had weakened both his body and his reiatsu, but otherwise Ishida had emerged relatively unscathed from last night's ordeal. The fact that he was so determined to leave the hospital was a good sign in itself that his resolve was recovering. He had yet to talk about his nightmare, and out of consideration for his feelings the others kept silent about it.

Ichigo, however, was finding it very hard not to say anything. _I know it was my idea to keep our mouths shut, but I can't forget the things I heard Ishida say last night. He probably doesn't even realize that there's a scared little kid inside him who's afraid of being left alone. Maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but sooner or later, we have to get him to talk to us._

Ishida was lost in his own thoughts as well. Although he refused to admit it, he was both shaken and confused by the news that Ryuuken had stopped by his room to see him. _What was Ryuuken doing here? Even when I was still living at home, he never bothered to check on me when I wasn't feeling well. Not even when…_

Realizing where his train of thought was headed, Ishida mentally stopped himself from going any further. _No. I can't deal with that right now, _he thought firmly Instead, he turned his thoughts to Chad, Orihime, and Ichigo. He had heard firsthand from Mihara about how they had taken care of him during the night, and though he'd already thanked them, he knew that one thank-you wasn't enough. Not after all they'd done for him.

Ishida had thought about it all morning, and now his mind was made up. _Kurosaki wanted to know why I kept pushing everyone away ever since we returned from Soul Society. Once I get out of here, I'll tell them that my powers are gone. Hopefully they'll listen…and understand.

* * *

_"Are you feeling better now, Ishida-kun?"

The golden barrier around Ishida faded, and Ishida slowly opened his eyes. It was almost five o'clock in the afternoon. Ishida had finally gotten permission to leave the hospital after his temperature returned to normal, and the teenagers, not wanting to bother anyone for a ride, had taken a taxi directly to his apartment. There, Orihime made Ishida lie down on his bed before calling on Shun'ou and Ayame to heal his concussion.

"Yes, thank you, Inoue-san," Ishida replied softly. To himself, he thought, _This is it. Time to tell them the truth._

"Listen, there's something I wanted to…"

Before Ishida could finish, Ichigo's cell phone suddenly began to ring. "Sorry, let me get this," Ichigo said as he answered his phone. "Hello?…Stop screaming at me, I _told_ you where I was!…Okay, all right, _fine_. See you in a bit."

Ichigo hung up the phone with an annoyed growl. "Stupid old man. Sorry, that was my dad. He's wondering where I've been all day even though I _told_ him last night that I was going to be with you guys. Anyways, he wants me to come home right now."

Chad stood up. "We should go, too, Inoue. Ishida needs his rest," he said.

Orihime nodded in agreement. "Oh, what were you going to say just now, Ishida-kun?"

"I—" Ishida looked slightly crestfallen. "It's nothing," he finished. "I just wanted to thank you all for taking care of me at the hospital last night, that's all."

Ichigo smiled. "Don't mention it. Take care of yourself, all right, Ishida?"

"Get some sleep, Ishida-kun! We'll see you later!" Orihime waved as she, Chad, and Ichigo left the apartment.

When he was sure that the others were gone, Ishida closed his eyes and sighed. _What on earth was I thinking? __There I was, ready to tell them that I'd lost my powers, __and they all left. Well, maybe it's better this way. I didn't really want to tell them in the first place, and they didn't seem to care about what I had to say. At any rate, __I can't expect them to be here watching me around the clock, especially now that I'm fully recovered. We all have to go on with our lives._

Ishida knew that he should rest a bit longer, but instead he climbed out of bed and slipped on his shoes. There was someplace that he had to go, and it couldn't wait.

* * *

"Ichigo! You got a visitor!"

"At this hour?" Ichigo frowned, put down the manga he was reading, and opened the door to his room. Going down the stairs, he was surprised to see Chad and Orihime standing near the front door with worried looks on their faces. "Chad, Inoue, what's going on?" he asked.

Orihime looked frightened. "Ishida-kun's missing! We went by his house to bring him dinner, and he didn't answer the door! One of his windows was open so I climbed inside to see if anything had happened to him, but he wasn't there! What should we do? It's already dark outside!"

_Ishida is missing? _Ichigo frowned, sure that there had to be an explanation for this. "Calm down, Inoue. He probably just went out to get something to eat."

"No, he's been gone for over an hour," said Chad. "Inoue and I had been taking turns watching his apartment while the other person looked for him. We checked the school, the arts and crafts store, the library, the park, even the cemetery, but he wasn't in any of those places."

"That bastard, what the hell is he thinking?!" Ichigo growled. Then a somber thought suddenly crossed his mind. "Did Ishida ever mention where his grandfather died?"

Orihime and Chad looked startled. "No. He never talked about it," said Chad. "Why?"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter," said Ichigo. He had just remembered how as a child, he used to walk up and down the riverbank where his mother died, hoping in some way to feel closer to her spirit. _Maybe Ishida wanted to feel closer to his grandfather after his nightmare last night. _"Well, he has to be _somewhere!_ Seeing how he wanted to leave the hospital so badly, I wouldn't be too surprised if he's off somewhere doing some top secret Quincy training."

"Oh!" Orihime suddenly clapped her hands together. "Thank you, Kurosaki-kun! I think I know where we can find Ishida-kun now!"

* * *

Ishida stood silently at the edge of the waterfall where he'd spent so much time training with his grandfather, listening to the sound of water pounding against the rocks. This sound had always been soothing in the past, but now it seemed to be taunting him. Taking a deep breath, he wiped some sweat from his forehead and extended his right arm. _Let's try this again._

As Ishida concentrated hard on forming his bow, his Quincy cross burst into blue flames. A faint outline of his bow formed, but as the flames surrounding his cross faded away, the bow shimmered and vanished without a trace. Ishida lowered his arm and sighed. He had lost count of the number of times he tried to summon his bow in the hours that he'd been here, but he was not about to give up now. _I got the outline to form. Maybe I'll get it right the next time._

Ishida tried once again to summon his bow, but this time only the flames appeared; the bow never formed at all. After several more attempts, he finally dropped to his knees in defeat. _It's no use, _he thought tiredly_. I just don't have the energy or strength to summon my bow anymore… _

"Ishida?"

At the sound of his name, Ishida leaped to his feet and spun around in surprise. "Who's there?" he yelled.

"Calm down, it's just us!" Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime stepped out from behind a few shrubs.

Ishida's eyes widened. "Kurosaki, Sado-kun, Inoue-san, what are you doing here?" he demanded. His mind was racing. _How did they find me? How long had they been there? How much did they see? And why didn't I sense their presence?!_

"I could ask _you_ the same question!" Ichigo shot back. "What are you doing, sneaking out here after you just got out of the hospital? It's a good thing Inoue and Chad remembered how to get here; otherwise we never would have found you!"

_That's right,_ Ishida remembered. _They came here that one time with Yoruichi-san, right before I began training with the Sanrei glove._ Putting on a straight face, he replied, "You didn't have to come and find me. I've just been training alone."

The three teenagers exchanged looks. Finally Chad cleared his throat. "Ishida…we've been watching you trying to summon your bow for the last five minutes."

Ishida's heart instantly lodged in his throat. "No," he whispered. _It can't be…_

Orihime looked both nervous and upset. "We know the truth, Ishida-kun," she whispered, her voice quivering as she spoke. "We know that your Quincy powers are gone."

_They weren't supposed to find out like this! _Ishida thought frantically, but he quickly pushed these thoughts aside and tried to look as nonchalant as possible. _No, I can't let them see me upset…_

"All this time, I wondered why you kept pushing us away," Ichigo said quietly. "Now I know. Losing your powers, not being able to fight…it's killing you."

Ishida visibly stiffened as anger flashed briefly across his face. He didn't want to hear this, least of all from Ichigo. "I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered.

"Stop lying!" Ichigo yelled, taking one step closer to Ishida. "Why didn't you tell us about your powers? Don't you think we had a right to know what was going on?"

"Ichigo," Chad said in a warning tone.

"We're your _friends, _Ishida!" Ichigo continued. "If you can't even trust us enough to tell us when something this important has happened to you, then…"

"I didn't _have_ to tell you _anything!"_ Ishida yelled, his eyes flashing dangerously. His right hand clenched tightly around his Quincy cross. _They have no idea…they don't know what I've been through. All those days and nights I spent training here, training until my fingers bled, all so that I could get stronger. And for what? In the end I lost everything that I ever worked for… _

The raw, unadulterated hatred in Ishida's voice stopped Ichigo in his tracks. "Ishida?" he asked uncertainly. Beside him, Chad and Orihime looked on with wide eyes.

"You said I didn't trust you enough to tell you about my powers," Ishida spat, his voice bitter and angry. "But you know what? I _was_ going to tell you! Back at the apartment, remember? I said there was something I wanted to tell you, but then you blew me off and left! _All of you! _So go away and leave me alone! I don't need your pity, _or_ your so-called friendship!"

Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime were stunned by Ishida's outburst. They had never seen Ishida lash out at them before, not like this, not with so much hurt and fury in his voice. And from the surprised expression on Ishida's face, _he_ hadn't expected to say so much, either.

Ishida's eyes were wide with horror. _What was that just now? Why did I just say all those things? Back at the apartment, I knew that they had their reasons for leaving. So why…why did I just practically accuse them of abandoning me?_ It was so _unlike _him to lose control of his emotions like that, and suddenly he felt very scared. _What's happening to me?_

_That's the real Ishida talking, _Ichigo thought to himself. _That's the Ishida that we heard last night, the little kid who begged us not to leave because he didn't want to be alone. But we **did** leave him this afternoon, and even though he seemed all right at the time, deep down he was more hurt than we realized. Maybe he was afraid to tell us about his powers because he didn't know how we'd react, and he thought that we wouldn't want to be friends with him anymore if we knew the truth. And this afternoon, just when he finally gathered the courage to tell us, we didn't give him the chance to do so. We met his worst expectations and let him down. **I **let him down._

Orihime's eyes were filled with tears. "I didn't know," she whispered. "I had no idea that we hurt you so much. I'm so sorry, Ishida-kun."

Ishida looked silently at Orihime, his face now expressionless and unreadable. Despite Ishida's calm demeanor, the other teenagers could still sense that his reiatsu was shaking like a leaf in a storm. There was also an all-too-familiar chill emanating from somewhere deep in his soul. _The barrier around his heart…it's forming again! He's hardening his heart to shut us out!_

Ishida shot Orihime, Ichigo, and Chad one last contemptuous look before he turned his back on them, but before he could move any further, Ichigo quickly ran to his side and grabbed his arm. "You're not going anywhere," said Ichigo.

"What are you doing, Kurosaki?!" Ishida yelped in surprise. "Let go of me! Leave me alone!"

"No way," Ichigo said firmly. "Do you really think we're going to leave you like this, when your reiatsu is trembling so hard it might break any second? We made the mistake of leaving you by yourself earlier today, and we're not going to do it again."

Ishida's breaths were starting to come out in harsh gasps, but he glared angrily at Ichigo and roughly yanked his arm free. "I don't need your pity," he hissed.

"This isn't pity," said Chad. "We're here because we're worried about you, not because we feel sorry for you."

"Don't be so angry, Ishida-kun," Orihime begged. "We're all friends, aren't we? So please, don't shut us out. You don't have to be alone anymore. Not when we're here."

Ishida clenched his fists and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out as a mixture of emotions raged across his face. Sadness, anger, confusion, anger, sadness, more confusion, more anger…Ichigo frowned. _Why is he trying so hard to stay angry?_ Then he saw a single tear trickle down Ishida's face, and he understood. _Ishida won't let himself cry._

"Just let it out, Ishida," Ichigo said quietly. "You don't need to act tough in front of us."

Ishida shook his head furiously. He would not, _could not,_ lose face in front of everyone. "Why are you doing this to me?" he whispered.

Chad looked puzzled. "What is it that you think we're doing?" he asked.

"You're making me _feel!"_ Ishida screamed. "And I don't _want_ to feel anything!"

"Why not?" asked Ichigo. "What are you so afraid of?"

Ishida didn't answer. Deep within his mind he could hear a young child crying, and he shuddered. _Please, no…I don't want to go back there…I don't want to remember…_

* * *

"_Uryuu."_

_Eight-year-old Ishida Uryuu immediately sat up in bed and gazed at the tall man who had just entered his bedroom. "Father?"_

"_Are you still crying, Uryuu?"_

_Uryuu didn't answer. He didn't have to. The tears rolling down his face spoke for themselves._

_Ryuuken frowned. "I know you miss your grandfather, but crying won't bring him back. He's gone, and the sooner you accept that, the better off you'll be. You're too soft for your own good, Uryuu. I'm going to bed now, and I don't want to hear any more crying from you, understand?"  
_

_Uryuu gulped. "Y-Yes, Father," he whispered._

_After Ryuuken closed the bedroom door, Uryuu buried his head in his pillow and covered his mouth tightly with his hands to muffle his sobs. He was sure that Ryuuken could still hear his cries, yet not once did his father return to the room to ask if he was all right. He was all alone._

"_It's all their fault," he murmured. "The Shinigami…if only they had arrived in time, then Sensei wouldn't have died." The more he thought about this, the angrier he became, and he found to his relief that anger was much more bearable than pain. "**I hate Shinigami**!" he screamed._

_Uryuu's eyes narrowed as his heart hardened with newfound resolve. There was no sadness left in him, only anger and determination. "Sensei, I promise I won't let you down," he vowed. "No matter what Father says, I'm going to keep training hard on my own. I am the last of the Quincies, and one day I'll be powerful enough to destroy every hollow I see!"_

_A final tear dripped down his cheek, and that was the last time in years that Ishida Uryuu ever cried._

* * *

_That's right, _Ishida remembered._ I never allowed myself to be sad after that night. The anger I felt against the Shinigami and the hollows gave me the strength I needed to train hard and become stronger. I didn't need anything else. I didn't need my father, and I didn't need friends. At least, that's what I kept telling myself. But looking back, maybe that was just an excuse for me to focus on something other than losing Sensei, because I wasn't ready to accept the fact that…_

"Ishida?" Ichigo asked gently. "Are you okay?"

Ishida didn't answer. He could no longer stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks now. A massive fountain of grief, suppressed until recently by his resolve, was surging deep within him, choking him, making his chest hurt, and he found that he couldn't ignore the pain anymore.

"He left me all alone," he whispered. It was not clear whether "he" referred to his father or his grandfather, but to Ishida it was all the same. His voice became high-pitched, almost child-like, as though the eight-year-old inside him was crying to be heard. "I had to take care of myself. No one was there for me. **_NO ONE CARED ABOUT ME!!"_**

His last words came out in a heartbroken wail as he suddenly crumpled to the ground, and Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime immediately rushed to his side. Chad kneeled down and gently picked Ishida up, holding him close and cradling him like a child in his lap. Ichigo and Orihime joined Chad and surrounded Ishida, holding him in a three-way embrace as he gave in to his grief and finally allowed himself to cry.

_It hurts. It hurts. _As tears rolled relentlessly down his face, Ishida squeezed his eyes shut and drew his knees to his chest as a long-forgotten feeling of abandonment engulfed him and threatened to suffocate him entirely. So great was the ache in his chest that his breathing began to come out in short, painful gasps, and with shaky hands he grasped Chad's shirt as though desperate to hold on to something tangible. "Forgive……me……Sen……sei…" he whimpered.

Chad stared down at Ishida in shock, unsure of what to do. "Ishida…"

Ichigo winced as he felt Ishida trembling and looked down at the sobbing dark-haired boy with silent pity. _I was right, _he thought. _Ishida really had no one to comfort him after his grandfather died. His dad, being the director of Karakura Hospital, was probably too busy with work to pay much attention to him back then. And if he wasn't around when Ishida needed him the most, then the__ poor kid must have felt so alone. Abandoned. **Betrayed.** No wonder he didn't trust us. He was afraid that we'd end up hurting him, and he didn't want to be hurt like that again_…

As he tried to imagine what Ishida had gone through, Ichigo felt tears forming in _his_ eyes, too. "I'm sorry, Ishida," he murmured. "I'm so sorry."

"We're here now, Ishida-kun," Orihime whispered as she gently leaned against Ishida. "You're not alone anymore. We're here, and we care."

Chad didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He could feel Ishida's body shaking in his arms and tightened his hold around the trembling boy. _Abuelo…today I found a new reason for why I was given so much strength, _he thought_. I can use it not only to protect the ones I care about, but to **comfort** them as well._

For the next few minutes no one dared to move or even speak as Ishida continued to cry. Then finally, as his sobs subsided, someone broke the silence.

"It happened…right here."

Ishida's voice was so soft that the others didn't hear him at first. "Ishida?" asked Ichigo.

"This is where the hollows attacked Sensei all those years ago," Ishida whispered. "And last night…I was here again, with Sensei. The hollows appeared and Sensei told me to run. I tried to summon my bow to help him, but it didn't form because I'd lost my powers, and then…" Ishida choked back a sob and buried his face in Chad's shirt. "It's all my fault!" he screamed.

"Ishida-kun's nightmare," Orihime whispered, and suddenly everything made perfect sense. _Not only did he have to relive the death of his grandfather, but in his dream, the loss of his powers actually contributed to his grandfather's death. No wonder his nightmare destroyed his resolve._

This was, Ichigo realized, an incredible breakthrough on Ishida's part. Aside from the time he told Ichigo about his grandfather's death, Ishida had never once talked about his past, never mind his dreams, yet now he just confided his worst nightmare to them. _He's opening up to us. He's finally letting us into his heart._

Ichigo reached out and rubbed Ishida's back reassuringly. "Thank you for telling us, Ishida," he said. "Now we know why you were so upset last night."

Orihime nodded and squeezed Ishida's hands. "It's going to be okay, Ishida-kun. _You're_ going to be okay."

At those words, Ishida pressed his fists tightly against his mouth and shook his head. "No," he murmured, his words muffled. "It's too late for me. My powers are gone, and I'm…_weak_."

Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Don't say that," he said sharply as he yanked Ishida's fists away from his mouth. "Since when do you give up so easily? Just because your powers are gone doesn't mean you're weak! You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for, Ishida."

Ishida wanted to believe Ichigo. He really _did, _but…

"I know that it hurts right now," Orihime said softly, "but however long it takes for you to feel better again, we'll be here."

"Lean on us for as long as you need," said Chad. "We'll help you get through this."

Ishida slowly lifted his tear-stained face from Chad's shirt and stared at the other teenagers with wide, uncomprehending eyes. "Why?" he whispered, and once again his voice sounded small, frightened, and vulnerable. "Why are you doing this for me? Why do you even…care?"

Ichigo immediately picked up on the word change. _Earlier, when Ishida was on the defensive, he asked, "Why are you doing this **to** me?" Now, it's "Why are you doing this **for **me?" There's only a difference in one word, and yet there's a whole new meaning. The first time, he thought we were trying to hurt him. But now_…

"Is a reason necessary?" Ichigo asked gently. "It's because you're one of _us_, Ishida."

"That's all the reason we need," said Chad.

"And we're not going anywhere," Orihime finished, smiling shakily.

_Kurosaki…Sado-kun…Inoue-san_…Ishida's eyes welled with tears. "I—" he whispered, but he never finished what he was about to say, and with a tired sigh his eyes closed as his body fell completely limp.

Ichigo and Orihime let go of Ishida and backed away as Chad carefully stood up with the unconscious boy in his arms. Ishida's breathing was still slightly irregular, but there was a visible look of relief on his face that they had never seen before. On top of that, his reiatsu was calmer and the barrier around his heart had disappeared entirely.

"Poor Ishida-kun," Orihime whispered. "He must be so exhausted."

"Yeah," Ichigo agreed, "but at least we got through to him, and he's not shutting us out anymore."

Chad nodded. "Should we take him back to his apartment now?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Nah, he might run away again. We need to take him somewhere safe." He paused. "I know just the place to take him. Come on, follow me."

With Ichigo in the lead and Chad carrying Ishida, the teenagers quickly left the forest and ran into the night.

* * *

_To be concluded…_

_

* * *

_A/N: I thought Chapter 7 was tough to write, but _this_ one was so much harder. Ishida's one of my favorite characters and I hate making him cry, but for the sake of this story it was necessary. Any guesses on where they're taking Ishida? The next chapter will _definitely_ be the last one, so stick around! I also want to remind everyone that **_there are_ _NO pairings in this fic_**. The characters here are defined by their _friendship_ and _loyalty_ to each other, just like in the manga, and I wouldn't have it any other way. As always, please R/R!


	9. Healing

A/N: Finally, after eight long months, the final chapter is _up!_ I am **SO** sorry that it took me this long to write this chapter, and while I had to rush a little to get it finished before summer, I'm pretty happy with the ending. Thank you for reading my story, and as always, don't forget to R/R!

* * *

The night was eerily quiet as Chad, Ichigo, and Orihime hurried through the empty streets of Karakura with Chad carrying Ishida in his arms. The sound of their own footsteps hitting the pavement served as a metronome that kept them running, propelling them forward and deterring them from stopping to rest. There was no time to stop. They _had_ to keep going.

Ichigo gritted his teeth. Normally he was horrible at sensing other people's reiatsu, but even _this _was something he couldn't ignore. Ishida's reiatsu had grown weaker ever since they'd left the forest, and Ichigo was _very_ worried. He remembered how back in Soul Society, Chad's reiatsu had disappeared after he nearly died in his first (and only) battle, and he was afraid that if Ishida's reiatsu continued its downward spiral, then it meant that Ishida was dying, too.

_If you have to do CPR on someone, it's because harm has already been done…when that happens, you do what you can and wait to see if it's effective. That's all you __**can**__ do._

Ichigo's heart sank as he recalled Isshin's words. Back at the pool, he'd known exactly what to do in order to save Ishida's life, but even then there were times when he wasn't sure if Ishida would survive. _Now Ishida's been hurt again,_ he thought guiltily,_ but this time I don't know how to help him_. _Hopefully, **he** will know._

Ishida suddenly let out a weak moan, and Chad gasped as he felt Ishida's reiatsu wavering. "Ichigo!" he yelled. "Should we stop?"

"No!" Ichigo shouted back. "We can't waste any more time! The sooner we get Ishida to Urahara _shouten, _the better!"

Ishida shivered, and Chad tightened his arms protectively around the unconscious boy to keep him warm. "Hold on," he muttered. "Just hold on, Ishida. We're almost there."

Orihime struggled not to fall too far behind the boys. _That's right, _she thought. _Now that Ishida-kun has lost his powers, it's not safe for him to be by himself anymore. He needs our protection, and there's no safer place in town than the shouten. Urahara-san will take care of Ishida-kun. I just **know **he will.  
_

Suddenly Orihime saw a familiar, two-story building looming in the distance. "There it is! I see it!" she shouted as she pointed to the building. "The _shouten…_it's straight ahead!"

With their destination visibly in sight, the three teenagers increased their speed as they ran the last several yards toward the Urahara _shouten._ Ichigo was the first to reach the door.

"URAHARA-SAN!" he shouted as he pounded desperately the door. "URAHARA-SAN, ARE YOU IN THERE?"

Seconds later, the front door opened as Urahara and Tessai stepped outside. "Kurosaki-san, this is a surprise!" Urahara greeted cheerfully. "What brings you here this time of…?"

His voice trailed off as he saw Orihime, Chad, and Ichigo standing on his doorstep, panting heavily and on the verge of collapse, with Chad's arms just barely holding on to Ishida. "Oh dear," he murmured. "Tessai!"

Tessai nodded. "I'll take him," he said as he lifted Ishida from Chad's arms and carried him into the _shouten._ The other three teenagers immediately tried to follow Tessai, but Urahara's cane suddenly flew in front of them and blocked their path.

"Not so fast," the former Shinigami captain said calmly as he noticed the outraged looks on their faces. "I know you're worried about Ishida-san, but I can assure you, he's in very good hands. More importantly, after the three of you rest awhile, I'd like you to tell me what happened to him. Please, come inside."

With that, he lowered his cane and ushered the exhausted teenagers into the _shouten,_ closing the door securely behind them.

* * *

Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime sat silently at the round table in Urahara's living room. After Urahara finished questioning them about the events leading to their arrival at the _shouten,_ he had excused himself to see how Ishida was faring under Tessai's care. Once Urahara left the room, Ichigo told Orihime and Chad his suspicions of how Ishida had no one to comfort him in the wake of his grandfather's death, and how the loss of his powers combined with the stress of recent events had caused him to fall apart in the forest. The news had stunned them both.

"How horrible," Orihime whispered, blinking back tears. "I didn't know that hollows killed Ishida-kun's grandfather, or that Ishida-kun saw it happen. He must have been so scared…"

"He _was,"_ Ichigo said darkly. "Remember what he said last night, when his heart was trapped in that barrier and we couldn't get through to him?"

Chad nodded. "He didn't want to be alone," he remembered, "and he kept calling for his grandfather."

"Exactly," said Ichigo. "Ishida pretends that nothing bothers him when he's around us, but all these years, he's been keeping his pain hidden somewhere deep in his heart where no one can see how much he was hurting. But now we know the truth. The Ishida we heard last night, that's who he was years ago, a scared little kid who missed his grandfather and was afraid of getting hurt. He just won't admit it."

"It does explain a lot," said Chad. "Now I know why Ishida always seemed to have some kind of invisible barrier around him that separated him from everyone else." He paused. "I don't blame him for not trusting us. How would _we_ have reacted if we had no one to help us through the worst pain of our lives?"

"It isn't fair," Orihime said angrily, clenching her fists tightly in her lap. "It's hard enough losing someone you love, but no one should have to go through the worst pain of their lives alone. How is it fair that the three of us had other people to help us through our pain when Ishida-kun had no one? I don't understand. Where was his father after his grandfather died?"

"Probably at the hospital, too busy with work to realize that his own son was suffering," Ichigo said bitterly. "Dad told me once that there are some doctors who spend so much time at work that they end up neglecting their own families. And with Ishida's dad being the director of the hospital, I bet he wasn't home very much. Ishida and his dad don't seem close at all; I wouldn't be surprised if his grandfather gave him more attention than his dad ever did."

An image of Isshin's grinning face flashed through Ichigo's mind, and suddenly he felt a warm surge of affection for his father. _Dad always put our family first. Even before Mom died, and especially afterwards, he was there for Karin, Yuzu, and me whenever we needed him, __no matter how busy things got at the clinic. _Ichigo sighed. _Dad might be an idiot, but at least we know he cares._

"I think Ishida's powers were a diversion for his grief," Ichigo continued. "He didn't have anyone to help him cope with his grandfather's death, so instead of dealing with his pain, I think he focused all his energy on developing his powers instead. But once he lost his powers…"

"There was nothing left to protect his heart from breaking all over again," Chad finished. "That's why he tried to close his heart within a barrier, but instead of keeping his pain out, it ended up locking his pain in." He shook his head. "You know, for a while yesterday, I thought he was finally beginning to trust us."

"Until we ignored him when he tried to tell us about his powers," Ichigo muttered angrily. "Can you imagine how hard it must have been for him to open up to us, only to get slapped in the face?" He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "We were no friend to him today," he murmured.

"Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime whispered.

Chad placed a hand on Ichigo's shoulder. "We'll make it up to him," he said reassuringly. "That's a promise."

Ichigo smiled weakly at Chad, and with that, the three teenagers fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Orihime clasped her hands on the table, closed her eyes, and bowed her head in silent prayer. Chad leaned back on his hands and stared blankly at the wall in front of him. Ichigo looked impatiently at his watch and scowled. _Damn that Urahara-san…it's been almost ten minutes since he left to check on Ishida. What's taking so long? Did something bad happen to Ishida?_

The sliding door to the living room opened, and the three teenagers quickly rose to their feet as Urahara entered the room. "Urahara-san, how is he?" asked Ichigo.

"Is Ishida-kun all right?" Orihime asked anxiously.

Urahara held his hands up to calm them down. "Ishida-san will be fine," he said. "You three did the right thing in bringing him here tonight. He's very fortunate, actually. Given what's happened, his condition could have been much worse."

The teenagers exchanged worried looks. "What do you mean?" asked Chad.

Urahara sat down at the table and motioned for them to sit as well. Pouring himself a cup of tea, he explained, "When Tessai and I examined Ishida-san, it appeared that he hasn't had anything to eat or drink in half a day. That, coupled with his recent illness and the amount of time he spent training in the forest, left him dehydrated and placed a terrible amount of strain on his body. Had you not found him when you did…" The blond man shook his head. "I also suspect he hasn't been eating well for quite some time now. He's lost quite a bit of weight since the last time I examined him, on the night that Abarai Renji cut him open with his zanpakuto."

Ichigo remembered that night all too well. It was the same night that Rukia was taken back to Soul Society, the same night Ishida got injured trying to protect her from Renji and Byakuya. Urahara had been the one to dress Ishida's wounds that night, and Ichigo realized that only Urahara, who did not spent a lot of time with Ishida, would notice if Ishida had lost weight in a short amount of time. _I never noticed, _he thought guiltily. _I just thought Ishida was always thin._

Chad stayed quiet, but inwardly he felt sick to the stomach. _I thought it was just my imagination, _he thought. _Yesterday, when I pulled Ishida out of the pool, and this evening, when we left the forest, Ishida's body seemed lighter when it did when we first went to Soul Society. I thought it felt that way because he was unconscious. I didn't know that he wasn't eating…_

"We didn't know." Orihime looked as though she was about to cry. "Ishida-kun doesn't like other people to see his weaknesses. He never told us that he'd lost his powers. After we came back from Soul Society, he avoided us whenever he could. I didn't know _why_ he didn't want to be friends with us anymore, but I never thought…" She stopped and stared helplessly at her hands.

Urahara's face softened. "As I said before, Ishida-san will be all right," he said. "His reiatsu was fading due to the damage inflicted to his body, but it's stabilized now. We've already begun treating him for dehydration and replenishing the nutrients and fluids that he's lost. After Tessai is done cleaning him up, we're putting him straight to bed. Sleep is the best medicine for him now. It'll help speed up his recovery."

The teenagers breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," said Orihime.

"Urahara-san?" said Ichigo. "Are Ishida's Quincy powers really gone for good? Isn't there any way for him to get them back?"

Urahara took a sip of tea. "Tessai and I were able to analyze a portion of Ishida-san's reiatsu a short while ago. It seems that while his spiritual awareness is still intact, his Quincy powers have effectively been sealed somewhere deep in his soul, far away from his body's reach. Because of this, he cannot harness his powers at will anymore." Urahara frowned. "This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing, so if there _is_ a way for him to regain his powers, then I have no knowledge of it."

"So his training in the forest to get his powers back…it was all for nothing?" asked Chad.

"That's right. The only thing his 'training' accomplished was to deplete his reiatsu and weaken him further. I imagine that his resolve was the last thing holding him together by the time you three found him. The Quincies were—_are,_ I should say—well known to be strong-willed and stubborn people, and that was one reason why they were so formidable. But Ishida-san is still young, and a Quincy's resolve, however strong, is certainly not unbreakable."

_No, it sure isn't,_ Ichigo thought bitterly, the image of Ishida falling to the ground in tears resurfacing in his mind.

Seeing the worried expressions on the teenagers' faces, Urahara smiled. "Don't underestimate Ishida-san. His resolve may be broken at the moment, but he has that strong Quincy determination in his favor. I have no doubt that he'll recover from this."

"Can we see him?" asked Orihime.

Urahara nodded and stood up. "Of course. I'll go see if he's ready." At the doorway, he paused.

"Inoue-san," he said, "I'll have to ask you not to heal Ishida-san while he's under my roof. After what happened this afternoon, I can't trust that he won't try to run away once you heal him completely. That's why I want you to allow Tessai and me to take care of him and make sure he gets enough food and rest before we let him go home. Is that all right?"

Orihime bowed her head. "I understand," she said softly. _If I hadn't healed Ishida-kun back at his apartment, then maybe he wouldn't have gone to the forest. Maybe he would have stayed home and rested, just like he was supposed to._ The thought of it made her sad.

Urahara nodded and left the room. As soon as he left, Chad turned and looked directly at Orihime. "You did nothing wrong, Inoue," he said. "We didn't know that Ishida was going to go to the forest as soon as you healed him. None of this is your fault."

Orihime blushed. _Am I_ _so transparent that Sado-kun knew exactly what I was thinking?_ "Thank you, Sado-kun," she replied. "I needed to hear that."

Ichigo shook his head. "What happened to Ishida today…that could have been any of us," he said. "We've all lost someone we loved when we were kids, and we all suffered for it. But Ishida…he had it so much worse than we did, all because he never had a shoulder to cry on."

Chad placed a hand on his own shoulder, where his shirt was still damp from Ishida's tears. "He had one tonight," he said softly.

"_Three,"_ Orihime corrected. She frowned. "Or is it six? We each have two shoulders, so…"

"Three is fine, Inoue," said Ichigo, smiling slightly.

Orihime smiled back. "You know, I'm glad we were there for him tonight," she said. "I feel like I finally understand Ishida-kun better now."

"Yeah, same here," Ichigo agreed. "If anything good came out of all this, it would be that."

The door opened again, and the teenagers looked up in surprise to see not Urahara, but Tessai standing in the doorway. "You may see him now," said Tessai, "but please keep quiet and don't stay too long. Ishida-san needs his rest."

"We understand," said Chad, and the other two nodded as they walked past Tessai and down the hallway toward the very last room. Tessai looked after them with his arms crossed firmly across his chest. When it came to caring for the injured, Tessai took his job very seriously, and he had no qualms about making them leave if they did _anything_ to jeopardize Ishida's recovery.

The room was dark and faintly lit by a small lamp. A single futon rested in the center of the room, and on that futon lay Ishida. A damp washcloth rested on his forehead, and a soft blanket covered him up to his shoulders so that only his head and neck were visible. Under the covers, he looked impossibly small and frail. Even in the dim light of the room, his face, though relaxed and calm, looked very pale, and at first glance he hardly seemed to be breathing at all.

_Ishida…eyes closed, lips blue…lying motionless on the ground…not breathing…_

"Ichigo." Snapped abruptly out of his thoughts, Ichigo turned to find Chad looking at him with concern. "Are you all right? You looked strange just now."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Ichigo said quickly. "It's just…seeing him like this reminded me of what happened at the pool yesterday."

Chad nodded sympathetically. "Same here."

"I don't think we can ever forget," said Orihime.

As quietly as possible, without bothering to close the door behind them, the three teenagers made their way to Ishida's side and kneeled beside him. Ishida's eyes were closed, and his breathing was so soft that only the subtle rise and fall of his chest indicated that he was alive. Ichigo could still recall with sickening clarity a time when Ishida's chest moved only because he was blowing air into the other boy's lungs, and as he watched Ishida breathe, he inwardly shuddered. _We almost lost him for good._

At first, no one dared to touch Ishida for fear of waking him up, until Orihime reached out and gently placed her hand on Ishida's forehead. "We're here, Ishida-kun," she said softly. "We're right here with you."

At Orihime's touch, Ishida's eyebrows furrowed as though he were concentrating hard on something. Then, with a soft sigh, he visibly relaxed.

Orihime smiled and withdrew her hand. "At least now he isn't hurting anymore."

"That's good," said Ichigo. "Because I _never_ want to see him like that again."

"Me neither," Chad murmured. He understood Ichigo well enough to know that if there was one thing that Ichigo despised, it was watching his friends and family suffer, and that now included Ishida. Traveling together to Soul Society had inevitably bound them together, and despite his distant personality, Ishida had proven himself to be a true friend and comrade to Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime.

Ichigo felt guilty as he looked down at Ishida, who looked so vulnerable as he slept. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, "I shouldn't have yelled at you back in the forest. I know that we hurt you, and I hope you'll give us a chance to make it up to you later. You got to hang in there, okay? This won't be like the last time, I promise."

"That's right," said Chad. "You don't have to carry all this pain by yourself anymore. We'll help you through this. We're not going to give up on you, so please don't give up on yourself."

"You're going to get better, Ishida-kun," said Orihime. "And when you do, we'll make sure you never feel alone again."

Ishida gave no sign that he heard his friends. He never once stirred from his deep sleep, but despite that, the other teenagers still hoped that somehow he could sense their reiatsu and find comfort in their presence.

"Maybe when this is over, his heart can finally begin to heal," said Chad.

"I hope so," said Orihime.

Ichigo nodded and lightly placed a hand on Ishida's shoulder. "Sleep well, Ishida," he said. "You're going to be okay."

From the doorway, Urahara observed the teenagers watching over their friend, then silently closed the door to give them some privacy.

* * *

"_I'm sorry."_

_Ishida found himself back in the forest where his grandfather died again, but this time he wasn't alone. Less than four feet away, huddled under a tree with his knees drawn to his chest, was a small, dark-haired boy who stared back at Ishida with narrowed, suspicious eyes. It was a look that Ishida was all too familiar with; he had seen it on numerous occasions in the mirror._

"_I know I haven't been fair to you," Ishida continued. "All these years, I thought I was doing the right thing by pushing other people away before they got close to me. I didn't want to face the truth, and the truth is that I __**am**__ afraid. I can't forget how much it hurt to lose Sensei, and I thought that as long as I didn't allow myself to grow too close to someone, then it wouldn't hurt as much when that person left. But I know now that by doing that, I only made myself even __**more**__ alone. I tried to convince myself it was all right, that I didn't need anyone else…but in the end I was only lying to myself."_

_The little boy silently climbed to his feet. His eyes, no longer angry or suspicious, were now slowly filling with tears._

_Ishida sank to his knees and lowered his head. "Please forgive me," he whispered. "I ignored you for so long because I knew that you'd never stopped crying, and I didn't want to hear you cry. Because I knew…I knew that if I allowed myself to even think about it, then I'd start crying, too, and I didn't want that. I've been such a coward__…__"_

_The little boy took several small steps toward Ishida, who didn't raise his head, and without warning threw his arms tightly around the older boy's neck. Ishida gasped as the pressure around his neck tightened, nearly choking him, but instead of pushing the little boy away, he wrapped his arms protectively around him and drew him close, allowing the boy to cry on his shoulder._

_**He's so little, **__Ishida thought, closing his eyes. __**Too young to go through this sort of pain alone**_**.**

_After a while, the little boy suddenly let go of Ishida and looked over his shoulder. Confused, Ishida turned his head to see what he was looking at. Three children, two boys and a girl, were standing by the river and waving. Ishida blinked. There was something familiar about those three…_

_The little boy took a few steps toward the three children, then looked back at Ishida with an apprehensive look on his face._

"_It's all right," Ishida said to his younger self. "Go on, they're waiting for you."_

_A huge grin spread across the younger Ishida Uryuu's face, and with a cheerful wave he turned and ran to join his new friends. Once they were all together, the four children ran off to play, giggling and laughing. Ishida watched them go with a sad smile on his face._

"_He's not crying anymore," Ishida murmured thoughtfully. "He's with friends, and he's happy. He's finally at peace."_

_**We'll be all right now.**_

* * *

As the first rays of dawn entered the _shouten_, Ishida's eyes slowly opened. The first thing he noticed was that he felt warm, and he sleepily glanced down to see that he was lying on a futon with a blanket covering him up to his shoulders. _Where am I? _he thought groggily as he silently surveyed his unfamiliar surroundings. _This isn't the hospital,_ _but I'm not home, either. How…?_

"Ah, I see you're awake, Ishida-san."

Startled by the sound of another voice, Ishida gasped and turned his head to see Urahara Kisuke sitting beside him. "It's all right," the older man said softly. "You're safe here."

Ishida's head spun with confusion. _Urahara-san? So then…I'm at the shouten? How did I get here? _He struggled to sit up, but found to his dismay that he had no strength to do more than lift his head off his pillow.

"Easy now," Urahara murmured as he gave Ishida's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Your body hasn't fully recovered yet, so please don't push yourself." Ishida opened his mouth to speak, but Urahara quickly placed a finger to his lips, silencing him before he could make a sound. "Shhh, don't try to talk. You don't want to wake the others."

_The others? _Ishida didn't understand. _What others? Who else is at the shouten?_

"Here, let me show you." Urahara said as he carefully slipped his arm behind Ishida's back and helped Ishida sit up. Ishida didn't protest when Urahara made him lean against him; he knew that he was too weak to sit on his own in his current state. The only source of light in the room came from a nightlight in the wall, and as Ishida's eyes adjusted to the light, he got a great surprise.

Three futons lay side by side not far from his own, and on these futons slept Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime. Chad looked almost like a solid wall under his blanket. Ichigo had one arm flung carelessly over his eyes. The only visible part of Orihime was her long hair, since her blanket had been pulled almost above her head. All of them appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

Ishida's eyes widened with shock. _Sado-kun, Inoue-san, and Kurosaki? Why…?_

"Kurosaki-san, Sado-san, and Inoue-san brought you to the _shouten_ after you lost consciousness last night," Urahara said quietly. "The three of them have refused to leave until they know for sure that you'll be all right. They even insisted on spending the night here, in this very room beside you, so that they can keep you company even while you slept."

Ishida stared silently at the sleeping teenagers, unable to tear his eyes away from them._ It can't be, _he thought numbly. _They stayed the night…for me? _A wave of mixed emotions tugged painfully at his heart. He wasn't sure whether to feel grateful for his friends' attention, or guilty for all the trouble he'd caused them these last few days.

"Now then…" Ishida finally turned his head away to find Urahara pouring some dark, herbal-smelling liquid from a flask into a small teacup. "I know you're tired, but before you go back to sleep I need you to take some medicine. It's good for you and will help you get your strength back faster."

Ishida made a face after taking just one sip and tried to turn his head away, but Urahara shook his head and brought the cup even closer to his mouth. Seeing that there was no way out, Ishida let out a resigned sigh and drank the rest of the medicine in one gulp. With that, Urahara smiled and gently laid Ishida back on his futon. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked cheerfully.

_Yes, it was, _Ishida thought with a scowl. It was becoming harder to keep his eyes open now, and he wondered vaguely if the medicine had something to do with making him so sleepy. Closing his eyes, he decided not to worry about that as he felt Urahara's hands tucking his blanket around his shoulders. It was a familiar, nostalgic gesture, and for a while Ishida imagined that he was a child again, and it was his beloved grandfather, not Urahara, who was putting him to bed. Then he remembered that Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime were only several feet away, and a single tear trickled down his cheek. _I was wrong…they really do care…_

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his words barely audible as he felt himself drifting back to sleep.

* * *

"_Look, Sensei!" Uryuu exclaimed as he drew back his bowstring and released an arrow so that it flew cleanly across the river. "Did you see that? The arrow never hit the water this time!"_

"_Well done," Souken smiled as he reached out and ruffled Uryuu's dark hair. "You're improving more and more each day. I'm proud of you, Uryuu my boy."_

_Uryuu smiled happily at these words. He liked making Sensei proud. Nothing he did ever pleased his father, so whenever Sensei smiled and said he was proud of him, it made Uryuu feel like he could accomplish anything._

"_I wish Father would let me spend more time with you," Uryuu said wistfully as he turned and gave Souken a hug. "I'm happy whenever I'm with you, Sensei."_

_As Souken embraced his grandson, he looked slightly worried. "And I __want__ **you **to be happy, too, Uryuu," he said softly. "No matter what happens…"_

* * *

The sound of birds chirping outside his window woke Ishida up. Groaning softly, he opened his eyes and found himself staring blankly at the wooden ceiling above him. _That's right, _he thought as he recalled the events from the previous night. _I'm at the…_

"Ishida-kun!" Suddenly, without warning, Orihime's face appeared mere inches away from Ishida's, making him gasp and shrink back against his futon in surprise. "Thank goodness! Kurosaki-kun, Sado-kun, he's awake!"

"Back off, Inoue, you're scaring him," Ichigo scolded upon seeing the startled look on Ishida's face. He still remembered what it was like to wake up with Tessai in his face and under the covers with him, and he thought wryly that Ishida was fortunate not to have had the exact same experience that he did.

"Oh, sorry!" Orihime apologized and immediately moved back several feet to give Ishida some space. Taking deep breaths to calm down from that surprise awakening, Ishida turned his head to find Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad sitting at his bedside, watching him with relieved smiles on their faces.

"Inoue-san," he whispered faintly. "Sado-kun…Kurosaki…"

Ichigo smiled. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Ishida nodded and carefully moved his arms and legs, relieved to find that he had regained some of his strength back. Slowly propping himself up on his elbows, he pressed his hands firmly against the futon and shakily pushed himself to a sitting position. His body still felt weak and tired, and for a split second he feared that he'd collapse. Ichigo and Chad immediately moved forward to help him, with Chad keeping a supportive hand against his back until he was able to fully sit up without support.

"Here you go, Ishida-kun," Orihime said, placing a glass of water in Ishida's right hand and his glasses in his left hand. "You must be thirsty."

"Thank you," Ishida said politely as he slipped on his glasses and gingerly took a sip of water. The water felt cool and refreshing as it trickled down his throat, surprising him; he didn't realize how parched he was. "How long was I asleep?"

"A pretty long time," said Ichigo. "It's almost 10:00. Aside from the few minutes you were awake earlier this morning, I'd say you slept close to eleven or twelve hours in all."

Ishida looked stunned. _That long?_ Glancing down at his lap, he noticed for the first time that someone had dressed him in a navy yukata, and he looked up to see Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime wearing gray, dark-green, and lavender yukatas, respectively. Behind them, three futons and their accompanying blankets were neatly folded and stacked against the wall, proof that they had spent the night at the _shouten_. "You three have been here all this time?" Ishida asked.

"Well, yeah," said Ichigo. "Did you really think we were going to leave you alone after what happened yesterday?"

"There wasn't anywhere to be but here," Chad said simply.

After hearing these heartfelt words, Ishida felt his face flush with a mixture of gratitude, relief, and embarrassment. Unable to bear the sight of his friends looking at him so intently, he turned his head and looked away. Sensing his discomfort, the other three exchanged looks and tentatively touched his shoulder. Ishida immediately stiffened, but he made no move to shake them off. Several seconds passed before his body finally relaxed.

Ichigo watched Ishida with a careful eye, silently making note of Ishida's discomfort around the other teenagers. _Looks like Ishida still doesn't trust us, _he thought with some disappointment, _but I guess I can't blame him for being so guarded. He's been pushing people away for most of his life; it'd be hard for him to change overnight._

"I'm sorry," Ishida whispered with his head still bowed. "I've caused you all so much trouble. First that…_accident_ at the pool, then staying with me at the hospital, and…"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, you idiot," he muttered, cutting Ishida off. "What have you got to be sorry for? _We're_ the ones who should be apologizing, not you."

Ishida looked up in surprise.

"We haven't been a good friend to you, Ishida-kun," confessed Orihime. "When we left your apartment yesterday, we didn't mean to hurt your feelings or let you think that we didn't care about you. We let you down when you needed us, and we're really sorry." She bowed her head in shame, and Chad and Ichigo quickly followed suit. "Please forgive us, Ishida-kun."

Ishida stared at his friends in surprise, unsure of what to say. He would be lying if he denied that they had hurt his feelings, but he didn't want to make them feel worse than they already did. Up until now he hadn't dared to think about what happened yesterday for fear that it would hurt too much, but thinking back now, to his surprise, the memories didn't seem to bother him anymore.

Ishida frowned. _How is that last night, my heart hurt so much that I almost wanted to die, yet now, I'm not sad or afraid anymore? _He deliberately tried to relive one of the most painful moments of his life, the night Ryuuken left him alone after his grandfather's funeral, in order to draw out as much pain as he could endure. To his surprise, it never came. Something inside him kept stopping his grief from taking form, a feeling he had never felt before until recently.

_Warmth. _The same warmth he felt in the forest when three pairs of arms surrounded him, holding him, trying to comfort him even as his body couldn't stop shaking from crying so hard. The warmth of soothing voices telling him that he was safe and that everything would be okay, even when he did not believe it himself. The warmth he felt surging through his blood when he saw three familiar faces smiling back at him, the moment when he realized that he wasn't alone anymore.

As he remembered, Ishida suddenly felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and he was amazed by how light and relaxed he presently felt. _It doesn't hurt so much anymore__, _he thought to himself. _Does this mean that I've moved on, that I've finally let go of my grief?_

Ishida turned back to the others. "It's all right," he said softly. "There's nothing to forgive. After all, the three of you were there for me last night, and you're here now."

Chad, Orihime, and Ichigo lifted their heads, looking both surprised and relieved that Ishida had forgiven them so readily.

"No, there's still one more thing," said Ichigo. "I know that if I hadn't dragged you to Soul Society to help me save Rukia, then you'd still have your powers, and none of this would have happened."

Ishida froze, his eyes widening with shock. "W-What?" he whispered.

"You don't have to tell us how you lost your powers," Orihime said quickly. "Just let us know if there's anything we can do to help, okay?"

Ishida's head spun furiously. He had never told anyone that he'd lost his powers in Soul Society, but looking back, he supposed it wasn't too hard to figure out. Maybe Orihime had told Chad and Ichigo how he'd stayed behind to fight Kurotsuchi alone, and since that was the only time he was separated from everyone else, they assumed that he must have lost his powers during that battle. To his surprise, he didn't mind that they knew; in fact, he felt _relieved_. As long as they didn't know the more personal details—like Kurotsuchi describing how he'd tortured and killed countless numbers of Quincies, including his grandfather, or how he'd disobeyed his grandfather by removing the Sanrei glove to gain the power to defeat Kurotsuchi, and how all his efforts were in vain—he had no qualms. _I just don't think I'm ready to talk about those other things just yet._

Shaking his head, Ishida sighed. "You're wrong, Kurosaki. You didn't 'drag' me anywhere. If you'll recall, I showed up at the _shouten_ by my own will. It was _my _choice to go to Soul Society with you to save Kuchiki-san. No one _forced_ me to go." He couldn't help but smirk at the befuddled expression on Ichigo's face. "You give yourself way too much credit, Kurosaki."

_"W__hat?!_ You little—" Ichigo growled. He wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug expression off Ishida's face, but instead, he grinned. If Ishida was able to throw insults at him, then it was a good sign that he was feeling like his old self again.

Ishida's smirk faded, and suddenly he looked small and defeated. "I've never blamed any of you for what happened in Soul Society," he said quietly. "I knew the risk I was taking, and in the end, my own actions cost me my powers. It was no one's fault but mine, so please don't blame yourselves. I won't have you feeling sorry for something that had nothing to do with you."

_I've seen that face before_, Ichigo realized with a pang as he studied the miserable expression on Ishida's face. _Ishida had that same empty look in his eyes on the day I defeated the Menos Grande, after he saved my life. Back then he looked just as he does now…sad, full of regret…_

"Are you sure there's no way to get your powers back?" said Ichigo. "Maybe your dad knows something. If you and your grandfather were both Quincies, then…"

_"No,__"_ Ishida replied firmly. "My father never wanted me to follow in Sensei's footsteps. He hated being a Quincy, and even if he knew of a way to restore my powers, he'd never tell me. He always said it was a waste of time to focus on the dead instead of the living."

Although Ishida's face remained calm as he spoke, the others could still hear his sadness tinged with resentment in his voice.

"What good is a powerless Quincy who can't protect others from harm anymore?" Ishida whispered. "If a hollow appears, I can't even draw a bow to defend myself, much less save other people from getting hurt. I'd only get in everyone's way." He lowered his head. "I was the last Quincy, and now…now the Quincies are gone forever. And Sensei…after the countless ways I've him down, he'd be heartbroken if he could see me now. I can never face him again."

Ishida looked away and fell silent while Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad exchanged startled looks. Their eyes met, and in a flash they knew. _This_ was the real reason behind Ishida's pain. After his grandfather's death, Ishida had somehow been able to suppress his sadness and guilt. Years later, the loss of his powers and his subsequent belief that he'd disappointed his grandfather brought those feelings to the surface, and because he'd never properly coped with his loss, his present grief felt as fresh and painful as it did when he was a child, tearing him apart. _But this time, we'll be here to help him. It won't be like last time, when he had to grieve alone._

After one or two minutes of awkward silence, Chad finally spoke. "Ishida, I was raised by my grandfather, too," he said, "and I don't believe your sensei would have wanted you to suffer for his sake. He _would_ be heartbroken if he could see you now, not because you let him down, but because he can't stop you from torturing yourself like this."

Ishida's head spun around as he looked at Chad in surprise and disbelief. "What?" he choked out.

"Don't forget, your grandfather gave his life for you," said Ichigo. _Just like Mom gave her life for me,_ he thought. "I know you said your actions cost you your powers, but you did what you had to do to stay alive. Your sensei wouldn't have wanted you to die. He would have wanted you to _live."_

Orihime nodded in agreement. "I think he would be very proud of you."

_**I'm proud of you, Uryuu my boy.**_

Ishida gasped. _Sensei? _He could have sworn that he just heard Souken's voice, but that was impossible. Maybe he'd just imagined it, but even still, he remembered now. _That's right. How could I have forgotten? Sensei never wanted to see me upset. He loved me. He wanted me to be happy. But…_Ishida bit his lip_. How can I be happy after everything that's happened?_

"You've got to stop beating yourself up," Ichigo said quietly. "Trust me, I've been there, and I know it's easier said than done, but no one here is going to think any less of you just because your powers are gone. Stop thinking that no one cares about you, because it's not true."

"We wouldn't be here if we didn't care," said Orihime. "You're our _friend_, Ishida-kun."

"And don't worry about the hollows," said Ichigo. "Remember, Captain Ukitake gave me a badge that'll allow me change into a Shinigami form whenever I need to. If any hollow dares to set foot in town, I'll make short work of it easily. It's _my_ turn to protect the people in Karakura, now."

"Inoue and I will help, too," said Chad. "And we'll protect _you_ as well, Ishida."

"That's right," chimed Orihime. "I won't let anything bad happen to you, Ishida-kun!"

Ishida hesitated. _Can I trust them? _he wondered. Then he gazed at their earnest faces, saw that they truly meant what they said, and realized that he _could._ A tiny smile tentatively formed on his lips. "Thank you," he whispered.

The door to the room suddenly opened, and the teenagers looked up to find Urahara standing in the doorway. "You're awake, Ishida-san!" he chirped. "Feeling better this morning?"

Ishida nodded. "Yes, much better. Thank you for taking care of me, Urahara-san."

"It was no trouble at all," Urahara smiled. "Now then, you must be hungry. Tessai prepared some of his extra-nutritious _okayu_ (Japanese rice porridge) for you, and I promise it'll be light on your stomach. How about it, Ishida-san? Do you feel like having something to eat now?"

The sound of breakfast sounded good to Ishida, who hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the previous day at the hospital. "Sounds great," he said.

"All right, then, everyone to the living room!" Urahara said as he turned and left the room.

Ichigo and Chad offered Ishida their hands and helped pull him to his feet. "I've got you," Chad said, keeping both hands on Ishida's shoulders as Ishida nearly stumbled. "You okay?"

"Yes, thank you, Sado-kun," Ishida replied as he managed to regain his balance. Then he remembered something. "Kurosaki?"

"What is it?"

"I never did thank you for saving my life at the pool, did I?"

Ichigo frowned. "I forget. Did I ever thank _you_ for saving me the day we fought the Menos?"

Ishida shrugged. "Don't remember," he murmured. "I guess we're even then."

As the four teenagers carefully made their way out of the bedroom and toward the living room with Ishida flanked protectively on all sides by Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad, Ishida smiled again. _I owe these three so much, _he thought. _Not only did they save my life, they opened the closed doors of my heart and reawakened something in me that I thought was lost a long time ago. I don't know if I can ever get it back entirely, but now, for the first time since we left Soul Society, I feel as though I can finally move forward with my life, wherever it decides to lead me._

_I may not have my Quincy powers anymore,_ _but in the end, I think I've gained something more valuable. I have my friends, and as long as they're here, I know I'll never be alone again._

THE END


End file.
